Thanks for this link, I had never seen/heard these podcasts. I will have to work out how to do it on my phone! (I' old lol). My thoughts on costumes inside... -- The New Irish Dance Message Board

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Date Posted: 13:43:30 09/19/18 Wed
Author: -
Subject: Thanks for this link, I had never seen/heard these podcasts. I will have to work out how to do it on my phone! (I' old lol). My thoughts on costumes inside...
In reply to: Bring to life 's message, "Discussion?" on 09:39:47 09/19/18 Wed

I think the costumes have always been very expensive. When my dd started dancing in 2002 another mother at the school showed us her new dress that had just arrived from Ireland and said that she had paid I think $800 for it, could have been more. I nearly died!
My dd was lucky to have some natural talent so when her teacher asked if she would like to start competing, I said yes but also said "Just so you know, I will never spend $800 on a costume!" oh dear, famous last words.
I didn't spend that much at first, I decided to have a go at making a solo dress and it turned out really well, it also took me something like 2 months to make! there may have also been a lot of cursing and tears during this time. Never the less, I went back for more punishment and made her next two dresses which were also a success but the stress of it was too much and I decided to hang up my sewing needle and pay someone else to do it. This was also about the time when the embroidery changed and there was no way I was going to attempt the very intricate embroidery that was being done on industrial machines, on my little home machine.
Of course this meant going from spending only a few hundred dollars on fabric (and many unpaid weeks of my time), to spending thousands, but it was worth it for my sanity.
What I have noticed is a shift in what many people are willing to do to save money, not just with costumes but with the entire "thing" of Irish dance. I only ever bought the dress itself and then ordered and applied the crystals myself, a huge saving! Not many seem to do this these days.
With other aspects of dancing, we always did dd's hair ourselves, makeup ourselves and tan as well. We needed to save as much as we could, but these days it seems many are willing to outsource every aspect of costuming. I don't know how much people would pay for services like tan, makeup and hair for every feis, but it must surely add a considerable amount to the cost of competing.
We also tried to save money by not staying overnight for feising if we could help it. Many is the time we would leave home at 5am for a three hour drive for a feis, compete and drive back home the same day. We would also drive 8 hours for long distance feising or 15 hours for Nationals. These days I see parents and dancers flying everywhere and staying several days in hotels, some of them doing it several times a month. This is all perfectly fine of course if you can afford it and I'm sure many can, but at the same time, you can't complain about the high cost of dancing if you are not willing to save money where you can just because it takes a little more effort.
Yes the costume is expensive, but there are many ways in which you can bring down the other expenses of dancing if you really try.

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As a general concept, I like the look. Wigs are great, I love bling, tan and make up fine. But I like the look at the Worlds, at the top level. I don't think prelim kids need the same level of costuming. I don't think PW need anywhere near the same level. I think there's a level of age-appropriateness too - I don't think it's sensible to spend $2000 on a Gavin for a four year old. Or even a seven year old for that matter. I don't get to spend other people's money for them, but I do think "the look" should be reserved for the top levels and filter down the grades and ages accordingly. The trouble is there is NO WAY to police levels of blinginess because it's all subjective. You couldn't even count diamantes because a taller child would need more than a smaller child. I don't have the answer either! But I know that all black outfits will NEVER be the answer. (NT) -- ., 06:08:18 09/20/18 Thu