The Dress Quest Part 2: My Mission Accomplished

It's finally finished! I have bought a new Irish Dance dress and personally, I think it's beautiful. Here's a picture of it from the seller:

I picked this dress for a few key reasons which I believe everyone does (or should) take into consideration when buying a new dress, particularly one that's second-hand and sold over the internet.
First of all; price. Price is a key factor when buying a dress, you want to spend enough to ensure quality without paying so much that you might as well have just bought a brand new custom-made dress. You will see many dresses marketed for over $1200/£750, whilst this may seem reasonable for used Elevation and Gavin Doherty dresses I would ask you to think wisely before purchasing. For that £750 you could have a reputable designer such as Eileen Plater make you a custom made dress to your specifications, which is more personal and I believe better value for money. This dress was £550 and as I am a student and can't afford more, and have such exacting measurements, I believed this to be a good price for what I wanted without paying for a custom-made solo.

Second of all, you need to consider colour. Colour can look massively distorted in photographs online, and you may have chosen something you think looks pretty on the screen and then discover when it's delivered that it's not quite as nice a shade as you thought. To avoid this being an issue, choose colours that you know always bring out your best features. As I have (very) light colouring and very blue eyes, I know that most shades of blue bring out the best of my skintone and eye colour so it's a fairly safe bet when choosing clothes. Don't be tempted to choose overly bright dresses simply because you believe it'll be more eyecatching on stage, if it's not going to suit you and/or looks ridiculous the adjudicator like any other person will be more distracted by your dress than your feet so it's a little counterproductive.

Finally you must consider how appropriate the dress is for your age and level. I know this sounds a little uptight and/or obvious because we all pick outfits we believe are appropriate to our age, but it's definitely something you need to consider. One memorable line from Memoirs of a Geisha relates dreams to hair ornaments, that "young girls are eager to wear all of them at once, but an older woman looks foolish wearing even one". Don't judge me on that quote, I couldn't find my book to be more exact but you get the idea. With Irish Dancing dresses as with hair ornaments, an older girl's dress should be less ostentatious than say a 13 year old's. As I am 19 and so in the Senior or Over 18s category for feis apart from the All Irelands, I think this dress is suitable to my level because it is a classy Open dancer's dress; the use of only 3 colours keeps it simple and the almost subtle sparkle added with the diamontés adds just that little bit of extra stage presence and glamour. I also like the celtic-styled embroidery as I believe that Irish dancing dresses should look a little bit Irish, it's good to keep some tradition in our outfits.

If you keep these 3 points in mind when shopping around for your new dress, I am sure you will have great success. Look on my Useful Websites page to find links to dress sites I found useful in searching for my dress and check back for photos of me wearing the dress soon. A lesson in subtle stage-makeup for the older dancer and how to add a little bit of glitz for younger girls coming soon...

If you're gonna jig, make it quick...

I know, I haven't posted in a few days and for that I am sorry. I blame flat-hunting in London; I honestly swear that trying to learn toe-walks and double-jumps for the first time couldn't possibly be as time-consuming, or indeed as painful. So, as my apology, here's a review on dance music.

Music can be an issue when practicing; you need something the right speed, with the correct dance music, and most of all you need something that not only sounds like the traditional music you'll hear at feis but also upbeat and up-to-date enough for you to feel really pumped. I've tried quite a few cds now, and I believe that if you want something that sounds quite upbeat, modern and fun you could definitely do worse than the works of Ryan Lacey and Ellery Klein.


Ryan and Ellery's music hits the right note between traditional and modern with complex and modern-sounding tunes being played on traditional Irish instruments, and with 2 albums to choose from you're spoilt for choice. Their first album, Step Into the Beat, has quite up-tempo, pretty-sounding music that makes dancing really enjoyable with simple and easy levels on the discs for the different speeds of dance, as well as a couple of set dances thrown into the mix as well. With the main basis being the violin (or fiddle) with drumbeats to keep rhythm it's enjoyable to listen to as well as dance too, and really helpful when you're trying to fit your steps to the music and keep time.

However, I think my favourite of the two is their second album, Kick Into the Beat. As the title suggests, this music really packs a punch with fast tempos, complicated music with a mix of instruments including the guitar and real feel of energy. If you're looking for some music that really seems to try and inject some energy into your dancing whether you like it or not, this is the sort you should buy. I especially love the "Meek Maid's Reels" which contrary to the name has nothing "meek" about it.

Listen to their music on iTunes or amazon.com and try it for yourself. Happy dancing!