No matter what dance you’re doing, no matter how good you are, here are 3 things you can do to impress any Irish dance Feis Judicator.
1. Show Confidence
This sounds quite obvious, but most dancers overlook it’s necessity by concentrating one what their steps are. Show how confident you are about your dance before, during and after you finish dancing by having your shoulders back, chin up, eyes up and just a general, ‘I rock’ manner. That sounds silly, but the dancers who don’t do this are the ones who end up looking silly to a judge, or any audience for that matter. You can do some amazing moves, but if you aren’t confident in your presentation it means nothing! Simply because it doesn’t look like you do mean it.
2. Smile
This is one that is hard to master. Keeping a pleasant smile on your face throughout the whole dance may sound easy, but it is NOT! If you don’t believe me, try it, you’ll get to your second step and realize you’re not smiling anymore. Either that or your smile will be a bit too enthusiastic, even painful looking. With some practice, though, having a pleasant smile on your face the whole dance will make your presentation ten times better. And not only will you be enjoying the dance, the judge will know you’re enjoying yourself too!
3. Move your Dance
Usually this isn’t a problem for championship dancers. With a lot of practice you can learn to make your dance move from one side of the stage to the other with ease. The dancers who win are the ones who make their dance as big as it can be. Those who tend to stay planted in the same spot in the middle of the floor don’t draw the judges’ eyes in their direction. And it’s important to pull a judges attention because 80% of the time you’ll be dancing on the same stage as another dancer. If they’re dancing circles around you, you won’t have a chance! YOU be the one to dance circles around the other competitor and the judges will have their eyes on you!
Keep these things in mind next Feis you go too. I guarantee they will give you a very strong advantage over the other dancers in your competition.
Article written by Shelly Hathaway
Photo by Shelly Hathaway Photography
Tags: attitude, beautiful, beginner, best, challenge, championship, competition, confidence, dance, feis, feisanna, Feiseanna, flight, grace, hard shoe, ireland, irish, Irish Dance, judicator, leaps, movement, novice, perfect, posture, power, precision, rhythm, riverdance, smile, speed, standard, step dance, steps, tips, treble
Thank you so much, i will keep everything in mind because i have been dancing for 2 years and I’m still in Bun Grad
hi im back i got a first and a fourth. Two trophies and 8 medals
Thank you for the information on how to dance well. I have been dancing for four years and still have not come first!
thank you so much! i can barley keep on a smile that looks real for 1 100th of a second I DON’T SMILE WELL!!!! any tips?
No worries! Thats not a problem at all. I was able to get to Open champs without smiling. I cant do it either. It always fades after like 1 step lol What I do is just keep a pleasant look on my face and smile with my eyes, if that makes sense. It’s worked for me.
Not true every feis I have been too the winners although are moving about well with high kicks, have feet that don’t turn out and heels that drop on the back foot. I know one dancer who is high on her toes, carries herself well and moves around the floor but doesn’t seem to get the judges attention because she always ends up dancing with a world medal holder, how do you deal with that when the judges just glance at a dancer even though they are dancing brilliantly!!!
The most important thing to remember if you find yourself comparing your dancing to another dancer is that you are ALL at the same level. So what if they placed at worlds? You are still at the same level and therefore have just as good a chance of winning. If they are capturing the judges attention more than u are, then there is something you can do about that. It can be different for everyone, but focus on finding the strength you have that go you to this level. Everyone has it, otherwise you wouldnt have gotten this far.
For me, my feet arent alwas precise and I miss beats now and then, also my knees arent always crossed, but my strengths are I can click really high and jump high, and stomp hard. So I remember those things when I’m competing. What are your strengths? If you dont think you have any your dead wrong. Oherwise you would never have reached the level your at.
Also the dancers who stand out, are ones who FIGHT to stand out. Dont just dance it, PRESENT it, Give them a great show! Showmanship is EVERYTHING! Know your a superstar and make sure they see it. And one side tip, If you have to pass the other dancer, fight to go in FRONT of them. It looks weak if you go behind.
Hope all this helps!!!
I’m not the dancer, I’m the onlooker, I am way too old for that now but I have noticed some terrible results another girl at the british nationals yesterday danced like a dream she was amazing feet turned out and crossed, posture excellent but she got 17th ok she recalled but she was far superior to some of the others who placed higher it makes me sad to see good talent go unnoticed just because they have never been seen at the worlds or had a world medal. some regions don’t have a lot of world places and sometimes the best don’t always get to go, personally, I believe the judges should start to take more of an interest in a dancer for her talent rather than a dancer who is prepared to push aside the other dancer she is dancing with to get seen, not all dancers are that pushy!!!
Oh don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean u should be pushy. I just mean if it’s hard to explain why one dancer won over another, the answer is often showmanship. Or u could call it pizazz, attitude, or whatever… lol Its the difference between doing a dance perfect, and making your audience enjoy watching you do your dance perfect. In this case the audience is the judge. Have you ever watched the Celtic Steps dancers from Denver? They are such a great example of excellent showmanship.
It sounds like your worried there are politics involved. If that were true, the judge would be disqualified. Showmanship is a HUGE factor in any form of dance. It makes it exciting! Perfection is important, but if you’re not as fun to watch, you won’t win.
I used to believe that was true but the first girl I spoke about performs out with competitions, she put together a piece with her friend and they have been booked to perform at various nights because they went down a storm at a recent performance. I work for a dance company and they have also asked them to dance at their end of session performance. If they could see the talent of their performance why do the judges not see it?
I am in ard grad, but we cannot afford a championship dress yet. i have practice almost every night and i am pretty confident about the dance. the problem is that every competition i never place. all of the other competadors have championship costumes that stand out and are very beautiful……some so pretty that they are sickening!!! i am wondering if the reason that i am not placing is that the judges don’t notice me or they don’t have as high expectations of me because i dont have a championship dress yet. maybe this is making me less confident……
I used to have a dress that was made by my Mom so it didn’t cost much. I wore it in champs for about 2 years and the most I got was 4th place. One day both my ADCRG teachers told me I need a new dress. Something that sparkled more (at the time the time that was the latest style). So I finally bought one from PaulKeith (costed me $800). It definitely helped me fit in more, but I DON’T believe it was the reason I started placing 3 months later.
I made a goal for myself to get into Open champs THAT year and so I started going to a feis almost every month. Sometimes twide a month. It took some time, but I started placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd a LOT more and near the endof the year I was in Open.
I do know the dress gave me more confidence, but I think it was my goal more than anything that started helping me impress the judges. Because I started doing a LOT more competitions I had a lot more chances to win.
At the same time, it helps a TON to know your not wearing anything that the judges might dislike. If you know you’ve got the whole costume right, then you can walk away without wondering if you lost simply because of what you were wearing. Last feismy ADCRG’s told me to tan my legs (I have VERY light skin haha). I forgot to do it in time and I didn’t place in the top 3. Maybe it didn’t make a difference, but I can’t help but wonder if it did. I’ll be sure to tan my legs next time because I don’t like giving the judges a dumb excuse not to place me. I want them to ONLY notice my dancing.
That’s my take on it…