The WR has had a smattering of WMHs and winners over the years but I think the recall percentage is lower than other regions for a few reasons -- Western U.S. Region Irish Dance 250192

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 15:53:33 03/27/24 Wed
Author: More inside
Subject: The WR has had a smattering of WMHs and winners over the years but I think the recall percentage is lower than other regions for a few reasons
In reply to: 's message, "How many girls from your age group moved into Day 2? Any?" on 21:14:34 03/25/24 Mon

I think it’s a combination of factors: extra cost for western US families to travel to Worlds most years, so fewer attend to begin with; the same cost factors mean WR dancers do fewer overseas majors in total, so WR dancers are far less experienced with competing on a large international stage like at AIs, Worlds etc; no name or face recognition from many international judges (NOT advocating for cheating, just acknowledging that many ADs do recognize the same podium or WMH kids year after year, and that reinforces assumptions about their skill levels, it’s a simple fact of familiarity); many WR schools do not do their own choreography and have to rely on workshops or once a year step changes, meaning the overall look of a dancer onstage isn’t always up to date or current; fewer large dance schools, period, and a lower Irish heritage population than in, say, Boston or NYC or other mid-america or mid-atlantic regions…

I’m sure there are many other factors to take into account here but the fact of the matter is, in my opinion, the WR is not as internationally competitive not because of a lack of talent, but what I see as a lack of resources and experience.

Maybe this work is already being discussed or done, but I think if the region wants to concentrate on a higher profile for its dancers, there needs to be a discussion about whether there could be regional support for teachers and dancers to travel overseas, get choreo help, expand their good business practices to make schools stronger and larger, etc

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Agree about the choreography. WHY can't our tc's here create their own? Especially when they judge overseas quite a bit. -- here's the thing..., 16:11:00 03/27/24 Wed
- It’s an interesting question - who in the WR does their own steps? Which schools? Some teachers truly can’t do it and in that case, better to outsource IMO, but those who don’t try…. (NT) -- would love a crowd sourced list of schools with all in-house, 16:13:57 03/27/24 Wed
  - I'm a passionate irish dancer, it's been my life. I'm dancing with a school that relies on us senior dancers to retain the steps we pay for from overseas alleged creator. I can tell you, for us, it wasn't -- I think it's a pretty common situation, can't name school, 17:12:25 03/27/24 Wed
  - MPG does his own steps and he's brilliant. (NT) -- ...., 03:08:49 03/28/24 Thu
    - Location? (NT) -- No name, 08:53:19 03/28/24 Thu
      - Western Region (NT) -- Phoenix, AZ, 11:44:44 03/29/24 Fri
    - MPG dancers don't get a lot of limelight but if you look at results, they are a force. (NT) -- No name, 10:01:31 03/28/24 Thu
  - Does Fisher-McLeod do their own? Not many dancers but they place high. (NT) -- No name, 13:03:35 03/28/24 Thu
    - Yes they do all their own choreography (NT) -- Wr, 17:23:56 03/28/24 Thu
  - Many have workshops HOWEVER plenty of the schools do their own choreography (NT) -- Just the way it is, 13:32:15 04/01/24 Mon
Back when we started ID in 2005, there were three big WR schools and they did have WMH and even a few world champs (more) -- Old timer, 08:56:16 03/28/24 Thu
- Maybe once the Riverdance boom was over, WR wasn't able to maintain the same momentum? (NT) -- No name, 13:06:40 03/28/24 Thu
  - That makes sense. (NT) -- Ol timer 2, 07:55:44 03/29/24 Fri
  - Momentum was lost during COVID. We were the only region not top have an Oir that year. Kids moved on to other sports... (NT) -- AZ Mom, 10:23:15 04/10/24 Wed
    - I'm pretty sure only Southern and Mid-America had an Oireachtas in 2020. (NT) -- No name, 23:31:43 04/13/24 Sat
- Celtic Steps teacher has been penalised twice for cheating. (NT) -- ..., 07:00:54 04/05/24 Fri

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums^(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.