Decoding an Irish Dancer's World With Plenty of Tips to Excel: An Introduction

Irish dancing literally takes years of blood (the injuries – you dance long enough you will have plenty), sweat (you do this every time you dance a few steps) and tears (the road to being a good dancer is long and hard) but it the end, all of the effort is worth it!  This blog has actually evolved over my twenty years of being an Irish step dancer but especially during the last twelve years since entering the world of competition where you must continually strive towards improving your self all the time.  The goal is to assist fellow dancers to have access to information that will assist them in becoming the best they can be by decoding the many facets of Irish dancing that exist.   

A great amount of the information provided includes lessons, exercises, tips, tricks and tools that I have learned from my own personal journey and no one else’s.  Subjects will include learning and doing exercises to build stamina and strength, taking care of our bodies, healing from injuries, sharing stories of triumph and failure on the road to following your dreams, surviving feiseanna, improving your group dancing, combating stage fright, preventing injuries,  improving and exploring mind/body connections, extolling the merits of set and ceili dancing, and acknowledging special accomplishments of individuals or groups who ultimately inspire us to greater accomplishments as well.  

Another major focus of this blog will be about different aspects of Irish dance shoes and accessories.  I have been actively researching them for years but with greater concentration over the past year preparing for my new book to be released in the fall of 2013.  Also watch this blog for future videos especially on how to lace shoes properly both for your soft and hard shoes!  

On my bookshelves, self help books touching lots of different subjects abound including quite a few exercise programs. Over the years, I have tried Yoga, ballet, Pilates, Callenetics and a few other programs supposedly designed to help your life.  In order to benefit the most, you have to pick and choose from each and individualize your own program from all the sources available. Various yoga poses helped me get pass some of my own inflexibility problems in my legs. Likewise doing exercises the Callanetics way greatly improved my overall body strength while doing similar movements in Pilates did not.   The posts in this blog will be the things that I have PERSONALLY found useful and beneficial to the improvement of myself as well ones that have worked for others.

So often we focus on improving the physical side of training such as on technique, strength and flexibility exercises, and stamina building that we forget that dancing is mental as well as physical.  Both are necessary in the pursuit of being better dancers so we must strive to continually work on the mental side by changing our thoughts patterns and belief systems in positive ways.

The road to improvement can be a long one for most of us but ultimately it is well worth the journey. Keep in mind that each person is a unique individual with their own limits, needs and strengths. Do not measure your progress or lack of progress with anyone else’s abilities. Find out what works best for you in the material presented and then merge it into your life.

You will not agree with everything that you read and some things may just not apply to you but that is fine. In my years of research, I have found that many of the exercises or products recommended by others did not necessarily work for me.  Improving oneself is both a learning and experimental process for each one of us. Start it with an open mind and you will get greater results.

This blog is for any and all persons who might be helped by the information contained herein. Its appeal should not just be limited to Irish dancers but dancers of all other disciplines as well. Non-dancers are also invited to peruse these posts as they are written because they can learn just as much from this information as anyone else. The world of the Irish Dancer is challenging, fun, rewarding and a little scary but by participating in it we can keep it alive and prospering.


 Stay tuned. Enjoy the dance!