FITPOD’s Amy Stow shares Irish dance passion and insights.

FITPOD Irish dance instructor Amy Stow eagerly shares her knowledge, expertise and love for this graceful, rhythmic and social dance form. Here are some interesting facts you might not know about Irish Dancing…

  • Irish Dancing is often referred to as riverdancing, however ‘Riverdance’ is the name of a show that performed at Eurovision, not the name of the dance style.
  • Female dancers often wear wigs rather than their natural hair for competitions. In the past girls would sleep in curlers so their hair could be in ringlets the following day … but then someone realised it would be easier to wear a wig or hairpiece!
  • Irish dance competitions are often compared with ‘toddlers and tiara’s’ or beauty pageants because of the sparkly costumes, fake tans and makeup. However, there are rules that do not allow young children to wear makeup or fake tans and the costumes usually have no impact on a dancer’s placement at a competition. Results are based purely on a dancer’s skill.
  • Irish dancers wear two types of dancing shoes: soft shoes (also called light shoes, ghillies or pumps) which lace up from toes to ankle and hard shoes which have a fibreglass block heel and a solid toe block in the front.
  • The white socks that female Irish dancers wear are called ‘poodle socks’ because their lumpy texture resembles a poodle’s haircut!
  • There are several myths about why Irish dancers don’t use arm movement. One is that the British outlawed Irish dancing when they invaded Ireland, but the Irish continued to dance without arm movements so that the British soldiers would not see them moving when they walked past a house with a stable door. Another is because Irish dance is a social dance form, people would often perform in crowded pubs or barns and there simply was not enough space for them to move their arms around!

For more information on Irish Dance with Amy or to sign up visit her page here!