From the various pages I have visited around the world, it is clear that Irish Dancing is slightly different depending on the country you live in.
As you already know (if you have read the page about me) I live in England. Here, Irish Dancing is big but not huge. But in America there are loads of dancing schools and the feisanna appear to be taken very seriously and competitively, and lots of money is spent on them.
As I have mentioned, I am attend a very laid back dancing class and I dance just for fun (probably because I'm no good anyway!). The fiesanna I have attended usually only conatin about 5 people in my age group, for my category.
Thats another thing. In America, there are more categories for dancing such as novice and prizewinner, etc, and this is also the case for many other countries such as Australia. However, in England we have:
BEGINNER (or can be called PRIMARY)-you are in this category until you win a first place medal/trophy with more than 5 competitors in your age group. And as I have discovered, unfortunately, one you get past about 15, there is no primary category.
INTERMEDIATE -you are automatically in this category if a feis does not provide a primary category for your age group, or if you have won a first place in Primary(as mentioned). Also, you do not move down a category. Once you are in Intermediate for a dance, you remain there.
OPEN -when you have won a first place in the intermediates, you move up to open. You remain here for 1 year only (I think) after winning first in either intermediate or this category. Most feisanna also hold championships for open competitors. You can only dance set dances in this category, also.
(Please note: This is only what I know and may have changed or be slightly different than I remember!!)
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