I feel there should be a cap, especially in older prelim competitions. -- Irish Dancing Topics

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Date Posted: Tuesday, July 26, 01:35:21pm
Author: Mom of older dancers
Subject: I feel there should be a cap, especially in older prelim competitions.
In reply to: mmc 's message, "Another topic about which I have wondered: How many firsts?" on Friday, July 22, 04:24:02pm

We see some girls going to every single feis in their home region and a neighboring region, placing first in nearly every feis (one girl I know of has at least 10 and we're halfway through the year). This is very disheartening for the 6 or 8 other girl in her age group who already have one first from previous years. If a dancer is not ready to move to OC, perhaps the teacher should not allow them to continue to enter a feis every weekend. Nothing is proven by taking first place the same group over and over again. Most of the OC dancers in our region dance through college so it is unlikely that an older prelim dancer will place high enough at the Oireachtas to qualify for Nationals. Their only chance to attend one major before retiring from dancing would be to qualify for Nationals by being in OC.

One thing I've never really understood -- according to the current rules a dancer could get their first first in December 2004, their second first in January 2005 and need to immediately move to OC. Another dancer could have gotten their first first in 2001, not placed at all in Prelims in the rest of 2001, all of 2002,2003,and 2004 but as soon as they get another first, its off to OC! How are these dancers more prepared for OC as a girl who gets 10 firsts within 3 months within the same year?

Perhaps the "powers that be" should re-think their move up rule. I would propose: five firsts in comps with at least 5 dancers and you must move to OC for the next feis. This would allow plenty of time to perfect a set for opens -- begin serious set work when you get your first first. It would also allow for one or two "quirky" firsts that are not truly representative of the actual competition (ie: blizzard, extreme heat, judge who loves you, all the "good" dancers in the comp got food poisoning at the host hotel).

A couple of other changes I'd like to see that relate to this issue:
Split the older prelim groups -- combine groups if necessary on the day of the feis to have >5 in each comp. 16 and over is getting to be one of the larger groups. Try registering the dancers for U16, U18, U21, 21+ then combine if necessary.
Encourage more feiseanna to hold separate prelim set competitions, that way dancers are better prepared for move to open and it removes the "unprepared" excuse from those who have multiple firsts.

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Replies:

I think it's GREAT that TCs are given loose enough rules that they may interpret (m) -- er, Tuesday, December 20, 02:26:41pm