All Journal Posts (1,076)

Dean Crouch Music would like to congratulate everyone who took part in The Vanishing Lake Competition in conjuction with the Marie Duffy Foundation (www.marie-duffy-foundation.com/)

As part of the Foundation two new set dances The Vanishing Lake and The Charlady will be added to C.L.R.G list of set dance tunes from June 2012. Both of these sets are now available for download and CD order on…

The event every Irish dancer wants to be a part of this summer ... Take The Floor!

Take The Floor is your chance to spend 10 days in Ireland learning from the best dancers and choreographers in the world to create a never before seen show in front of a LIVE audience for one night only!…

Hi everyone! My name is Amanda and I just started a new business in October. More like November because it took a long time to get stock. Anyway, I'm really trying to get my foot in the door so I can help all Irish dancers that need dance supplies. There is a shammy awards contest going on and I made the first cut! You vote for your favorite Irish stuff in Michigan. I know you aren't in MI, but you can still vote! I have some really wonderful friends in Ireland and Scotland voting for me as…

To Kathleen, everyone at FA, and all the subscribers:

I loved the magazine. I really did. I loved the feis reports, articles written by dancers, teachers, and parents, and everything. My brother loved the special boys only section. (We actually happen to attend the same dance school as Ms. White's son) I was shocked that one mom and her supporters had the power and means to put out a bimonthly magazine exclusively about competitive Irish dancing in North America.

But all good…

My teacher  no longer wants to teach me anymore... because I am "too old". I am moving soon and will try to find a school which will accept me and teach me like any other paying student.

However... I am very sad. I have lots of connections and friends and no one else seemed to care about how old I was before. I don't know why this year is different.

Has any other adult student come across this?

King O'Sullivan winter feis 2011

This feis was the best yet! Let me tell you all about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 22nd 2012…

I planned on updating throughout the feis, but signal was spotty and didn't work 97.9% of the time.

The venue was beautiful, it is on a mountain at a resort, the feis was well run and moved quickly throughout the morning for grades,( I am a Novice/PW) It was on my birthday, hoping the B'day gods's would grant my wish and give me 1st in my main dances, but that wasn't to be.

I got a 1st with my 8 hand team members(GO RNE), I got a second in my Blackbird,( a half a point from 1st…

Hi everyone, for the last several years, I have hosted teaching workshops in Houston, where I live. I took last year off but am looking forward to hosting some this year.

If you are interested, I am hosting a workshop March 3 here in Houston.

The venue will be at the Frenetic Theater (www.freneticore.com) and will last from 11-3 p.m.

I will evaluate and teach steps, offer suggestions and learn new tips and tricks.

The…

It's January. Currently I'm snowed in, and I don't even have CRN Regionals at the end of the month to look forward to this year. The college life, don't you know.

 Just for fun, here's a poll based on that timeless favorite "Would You Rather..." game.

Would You Rather Dance*

*in a feis, at practice, just for fun

1. "St. Patrick's Day"…

Watch this amazing speech. It was given by a coach to a football team, but it has such relevance to Irish dance. The song in the background is even a reel (I think from The Last of the Mohicans based on the YouTube comments)!

Yes, you ARE a champion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX39J_YyKbs

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. I wanted to write this entry a week ago but my schedule is crazy now that the break is over. College classes started and I have 18 hours of school a week which is the most i've committed to since 2007. On top of that, Worlds training is in full swing. I'm at the studio Monday (2 hours), Tuesday (2.5 hours), Thursday (2.5 hours), Friday (2.5 hours), Saturday (2 hours). My 24 hours in a day is definitely stretched but I am…

With the Christmas holidays here, and many studios taking time off until the New Year, I know many dancers are reevaluating their goals and ambitions for coming year. For the old dancers, many are wondering if this year will be their last in the competitive world. 

Making the decision to retire was an extremely hard choice for me. My life revolved around dance, including my job, as a student teacher and my social life. I was almost 19 and I had no idea what else I was good at, other…

My apologies to James Pierpont, author of "Jingle Bells", and for any abuse of rhythm, timing or grammar in my narration of an unfortunate mishap this evening in Barnes and Noble.



(sung to popular tune you should know by now)

Reading in a bookstore's chair

on a mid-December night,

I loved the quiet there,

but gave myself a fright



by reading stories of

ghost sightings in our state.

A man behind me dropped a book;

what happened next was…

I write weekly posts in Diddlyi Magazine! Read my archived articles here: http://mag.diddlyi.com/author/shellyhathaway/

From nothing, something

From chaos, order

From crushing defeat, victory

From here, there's nowhere to go but up

Rising from the ashes of obscurity

To the flames of joyous victory

That's what so many hope to achieve

From the bottom, there's nowhere to go but up

From an idea, reality

From a hope, victory

From beginners, champions

We had nowhere to go but up

In the face of strong competition, this is more great recognition…

Novice to Prizewinner is my ultimate goal. I have performed in one feis in the and-over age group and did alright for my first time. I think I have a LOT of practicing to do to improve my form and technique, but I was just glad to get through all of my steps!

I feel like I am starting to doubt my ability to improve. I am 24 years old, will be 25 in April, and I am afraid that there might be habits that will be difficult to break and could keep me from reaching my goals. My…

(First off, wow, that was an interesting reaction to my previous journal post... XD)

I have been dancing for just over a year now. And as of the end of my fourth feis last weekend, I have three dances in Novice (reel and light and single jigs), one dance in Beginner Two (slip jig), one dance in Beginner One (treble jig), and two still left to learn (hornpipe and trad set).

On the one hand, that's apparently amazing, as far as dancers from my dance school are…

In a recent blog post I recieved a comment asking, what is your advice to older dancers in their 20s trying to qualify for worlds? I responded but decided it would be a great topic for my next blog post. 

As everyone on Diddlyi knows, Irish Dance is far from easy. It takes hours of training and commitment, and that is why many dancers decide to retire from the competitive world when they start post-secondary education. I was one of those girls. The stress of work, school, and life are…

So the time has come to break in new hardshoes. Every irish dancer's worst nightmare. My old one's barely made it through the Oireachtas. I had to have the heel secured on, in the fears that it may rip off at any time, and I had danced all the way threw the bottom leather. Sure enough my arthritic big toe was not happy with me dancing in these shoes...…