Getting Started

Beginner dancers do not need a costume unless they choose to get involved in performances or competitions.

Our beginner class costume is a skort and black shirt that is provided. Beginner boys can wear a white shirt and black dress pants or class costume. This can be worn at performances, the annual recital and in competitions.

Each Irish dance school has a costume with a particular design and colour combination. Our dancers wear these when competing as beginner and novice dancers, at performances, and during team competitions.

There are often second-hand costumes available for sale or a new costume can be made for your dancer, contact Sheila. We work very hard to keep this cost as low as possible.

For their first few classes, beginners can wear socks, ballet slippers or gymnastics slippers. They will eventually need a pair of Irish ghillies or light shoes. Sometimes second-hand shoes are available for a donation to our Dancers' Fund. New shoes are available in a few locations in the GTA and also from vendors at Irish dance competitions.

Hard shoes or jig shoes are an oxford style of shoe with special built-up tips and heels of fiberglass. They are worn to produce the percussive rhythmic sounds that are characteristic of hornpipes and treble jigs.

Once dancers progress through the basic steps of the light shoe dances (reel, light jig, slip jig, single jig) they are introduced to treble jig and hornpipe rhythms. They need hard shoes at this point.

Some dancers may be able to purchase second-hand shoes, often the best route for beginners. They can be purchased at one or two locations in the GTA, online or from the vendors at Irish dance competitions.

Feis, pronounced "fesh", is a Gaelic word that means arts and cultural festival, but it is commonly used to denote an Irish dance competition. Feiseanna is the plural form of feis.

Dancers need to have mastered some basic steps before trying competition. Most dancers start competing sometime during their first year of lessons in the beginner category. Some dancers do not start competition until they have danced for two or three years, in which scenario they can be accommodated in other levels.

Costs vary somewhat, but currently the early levels of dance are $12 per dance (dancers dance 3-5 dances/feis). There is also an admission or "family fee" of about $25 that is paid once and encompasses any adults or children accompanying the dancer to the event.

We suggest that dancers attend at least three competitions in the first year that they choose to compete. This provides them with an opportunity to apply what they learn from one event to the next. Advanced dancers can choose to continue in this way or become more involved and attend as many feiseanna as they can schedule. Serious competitive dancers are encouraged to travel outside of Ontario.