Moms to Reel Boys

I remember four years ago. My son was getting ready to compete at his first big regional Irish dance competition, an Oireachtas. He had always just worn the "school costume" for his Irish dance that consisted of a colored shirt that was one of the school's colors, a black satin tie with a Celtic trinity knot embroidered on it, and black dress pants straight out of a department store. That was what many of the boys wore. We knew that we would need to improve his costume a bit to compete at the higher Oireachtas level, by adding a black vest.

So, when he came out of an Oireachtas workshop class and shared with me that he'd been told he needed a black vest with rhinestone buttons, I was a bit shocked. Rhinestone buttons? As in shiny, giant, diamond-looking buttons on my boy child?? Ummmmm........ like a Liberace-esque, crystal, shiny, costume on my kid?

Yes, I know.
I look back and see that the costume slippery-slope began that day for us.

Cross-training is training in two or more sports in order to improve fitness and performance in a main sport- i.e. Irish dance. It is also called conditioning.

Many Irish dancing boys play sports or do activities other than Irish dance. Some of those activities are just for fun, but many of them, while fun, help with improving skills that make them as an Irish dancer even more competitive.

I remember several years back getting to meet a professional Irish dancer with my son after a show. He talked to us and found out that my son at the time was a hockey player in addition to doing Irish dance. He said that he had been a hockey player too. His next comment has really stuck with me through the years. He said that hockey was great for Irish dance because it had given him really quick feet. After thinking about it, I could see what perfect sense that makes. Same thing happened a year or two later when we waited backstage at a Riverdance show. The lead male dancer at the time came out and talked with us. He said he had been a soccer kid first before he had ever even tried Irish dance. He felt that soccer had given him great turn-out, fast feet, and great stamina.