What is Irish Dance???

"The universe gives you those dreams because you can have them." ~Michael Flatley

Basics on Irish Dance...
Shoes:
Softshoes are like ballet flats, only they look like this...

Hardshoe.

Hardshoes are leather shoes with a wedge shaped fiberglass toe and a fiberglass heel that is about 2 inches high.

The movements are like tap or clogging, but I am only generalizing... the differences include the following:
In Irish, the feet are always crossed and "shuffles" called trebles or rallies, are done in front, not to the side, with a little wiggle of the foot, hard to explain, you'll want to observe it from a dancer. (links below) also, hardshoe in irish includes front scissor clicks, and back ones as well, also multiple clicks while in midair from the heels, Toestands, a markedly similar to the ballet pointe, except not sustained, just a pop up and down. other movements include drums, which I really can't explain. some movements are on Natalie Bee's site, but it isn't working now... the link was...http://www.natalybee.sphosting.com/ darn it, that one was good!

okay, what else,... oh yes...
Costumes!!!
A school costume often looks like this

then once you reach a certain level of competition (the levels being beginner 1, beginner2, novice, prizewinner, prelim championships, and open championships in the usa) you can get a new dress, called a solo dress. They are usually the fancier the higher in compeition you get.. here are some fancy ones.. actually, to see a lot of costumes, just go to Photo Flair

Boys used to wear kilts, but now they can wear pants too.

I don't want to talk about history, that's not really what many of you started for, so I included some links from Ann's place, which has a lot of technical info.
First try:
Ann's Place and its link...to history then go to The Broesler academy homepage and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand side menu.. there are some info links there too.