Irish Step Dancing: Boys' Participation


Figure 1.--.

Irish dance has evolved in other ways during the 20th Century. Instruction is beginning at a younger age. Who is instructed has also changed from mostly males to mostly females (the turning point was before 1930). Girls dancing solos in competition were rare before the 1920s. Both boys and girls participate, but the great majority of the dancers are now girls. Often less than 10 percent of the dancers are boys at modern feises. Many mothers would like to incourage their sons to dance, but are unsure as to just how to do it.

HBC asked Irish dancers as to how to incourage boys to participate in Irish step dancing. Some of the responses included:

Mary

Depends on how old he is. Mine started at 6 and a half. He really liked it. I told him the teacher "needed" him a lot for all the figures. He felt really wanted and needed. Boys are truly needed for the 8 hands and all the figures. You also might tell him that it is excellent conditioning for all sports. My son won the field day race at school and I believe it was from all the dance practice... now he's going to the Worlds. He has had a blast with it. He does not want to do it for a career or to be a teacher. He just likes it and likes competing and winning trophies. It's fun.

You could tell him there is fun travel involved and he will get to stay in some pretty neat hotels. My kids certainly enjoy that..

You could also say you need for him to take an art either piano or dance. I told my kids piano is boring and not as fun as Irish. When I was a kid I did piano and I wish we had had Irish dancing back then but we did not. So what would he rather do, practice piano or violin all alone, or go to figures class with all the other kids?

Anthony

If he's old enough to be interested in girls, just tell him that there are many more girls than boys, and that girls generally prefer boys who can dance. If he's not that old yet, I have no idea.

Sharon

Find another boy who dances to get him interested

Bribe him with Pokemon cards or gameboy time! (in our house that works really well- 2 minutes of gameboy time for 1 minute of dance or music practice...

Sharon Goldwasser

Marsha

Sharon, absolutely brilliant!!

Jim

Pokemon? Seriously, folks. Any kid, boy or girl, that has to be bribed with Pokemon cards ain't really gonna last long as an Irish dancer. The desire can be cultivated, but really has to grow from inside. However, any kid that's authentically capitalistic just needs to hear that Michael Flatley makes almost as much as Michael Jordan, and worked as hard to get it.

For the less enterprising or calculating, on the other hand, I think kids have to see the example of their parents enjoying various aspects of Irish culture, music and dance especially. That doesn't mean that Mom has to do step dancing, but maybe you listen to a John Whalen CD in the car, instead of local ROCK 102FM or Dr. Laura! Maybe the family goes to a ceili together where men & women & children all dance "Walls of Limerick." Take in an Irish festival. Listen to Ceili house from RTE on the WWW. I think familiarity and confidence with the music is one of the great advantages for kids learning Irish dance, and one of the delights they discover.

It's also great to let them see men and older boys dancing. My son was thrilled to see Donny Golden dance with Cherish the Ladies at Milwaukee two Summers ago. The competitions help as well. Let them win that first medal, and then they have a great motivation. And while any school may have only 4 or 5 boys to 50 girls, a Feis (at least in the Boston area) will have usually 30 to 40 male competitors in various age groups.

Make it easy for them to practice. Have a comfortable place, good music, lots of encouragment and support.

Jim Farrell

Sharon

Jim commented on my suggestion for getting or keeping an interest in Irish dancing in a young boy (in our case, a 9 year old). Much of ehat John says is certainly true.

In Simon's case, however, it was some grease for the wheel. He's not a naturally gifted dancer. It has taken a longer time for him to integrate all of the aspects of dancing- steps, timing, style etc than for many other children. He has danced for 3 years and placed no higher than 3rd at any feis. You can imagine how discouraging that might be.

Yet just today, in the car after his dance class, we talked about how he had stuck with it even when he felt like quitting. He was able to recognize the positive feedback loop between attitude and improvement. He would like to advance, yet he acknowledges that even if he doesn't, he has accomplished and learned something that none of his classmates or friends from school can do. Maybe it's a cheap bribe, but in this case, it sustained an interest that was wavering and kept him practicing until he again found some positive/personal rewards in dancing. As a parent that's more important to me than any championship he might ever win.

Chris

I think that it is also important that the kid WANTS to learn modern Irish step dance because its fun and not be pushed into it by over assertive parents because THEY want him to learn perhaps through unrealised parental ambition. There are too many drop-outs amongst modern Irish step dance because parents have pushed their kids into it, and being reluctant the kids didn't practice enough, they then found it hard to keep to the standard required to win medals, got stressed out - have you seen the young kids bawling their eyes out at competitions because they felt that their parents wouldn't love them any more because they didn't win a medal?, - and then completely giving up in their teens never to return.

Chris Brady.






Christopher Wagner







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Created: January 4, 2000
Last updated: November 28, 2000