Earlier this year, a unique new Irish dance account popped up on Instagram called The Irish Dancer Forum — a platform that aims to give CLRG dancers across the world a stronger voice.
“As the CLRG is under intense scrutiny for the recent uncovering of ongoing cheating and scandals, we would like to remind all those involved what Irish dancing is truly about — the dancers and the passion they have for their culture and sport,” they captioned their first Instagram post.
Moderated by a dancer with more than 20 years experience in competitive Irish dance within CLRG – who wished to remain anonymous – the focus of the page will prioritise “the Irish dancers above all”, as they told The Irish Dance Globe. We hear more about the inspiration behind creating the page and what they hope to accomplish in the longer term.
What inspired you to create The Irish Dancer Forum?
The Irish Dancer Forum: The true inspiration behind this page is a pure love for this sport and an honest desire to improve the competitive environment for Irish dancers in CLRG. While the way the cheating [scandal] was exposed was scandalous and the details were horrific, we can’t say it was brand new information. We may have been naive to think the news exposure would be enough cause for things to finally change, but the efforts thus far have been low impact.
For example, there have been new rules that limit judges being aware of specific dancers’ numbers, but the truth is that many dancers are identifiable by their dresses, steps, and looks, and the rules do nothing to address the existing bias and favours in judging. In other words, a judge recognising a dancer is not the problem. The reality is that factors other than the dancing at that moment are influencing dancers’ scores and there is no system to prevent, identify, or rectify the bias.
What do you hope the page accomplishes?
The Irish Dancer Forum: We hope that the page can communicate the needs and values of dancers to CLRG, in order to make changes that directly benefit those in the sport. Our vision is to promote a positive competitive Irish dance experience for each and every dancer.
Do you think that it’s important for actively competing dancers to have a say in how competitions are run?
The Irish Dancer Forum: Absolutely! Currently, there is no process that exists for the opinions of dancers to be heard nor acted upon. The focus should be athlete-centred spo
rt, to prioritise the needs of dancers. As the sport evolves, more efforts are required to ensure the physical and mental well-being of dancers. Furthermore, the Irish dancing world has a lot of work to do in terms of equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. We aim to give dancers a voice in the reform and advancement of the sport.
In light of the recent cheating controversy within CLRG, are dancers’ voices more important now than ever?
The Irish Dancer Forum: Yes, of course. We have seen that the skills and talent of a dancer may not have truly been reflected in the results. This recent controversy has created an opportunity to openly discuss what might need to change.
Unfortunately, dancers do not have a seat at the decision-making table of CLRG. TCRGs can represent their dancers’ interests at the regional level to a certain extent. Even though most teachers have their dancers’ best interests at heart, there is an inherent conflict of interest in this representation. This conflict of interest stems from teachers being business owners and having their own reputation to maintain. Therefore, we think it’s important for dancers to be heard independently.
You recently polled dancers about the dancing three at a time rule. What were the results like, and how do you think changing the rule could impact dancers?
The Irish Dancer Forum: The responses thus far have been in strong agreement for a two-dancer rotation. Over 95 per cent of dancers have experienced a collision on stage and have felt that they did not dance their best due to the other dancers on stage at a competition. 100 per cent of polled World qualifying dancers have felt additional stress and/or anxiety due to a three dancer rotation. 95 per cent of these dancers also stated feelings of being overlooked at a competition due to mapping issues or who they were dancing with on stage. The high majority of TCRG responses, as well as 97-99 per cent of parents or relatives expressed the same feelings concerning dancer’s stress and performances due to three dancer rotation.
Of the adjudicators that have previously judged a major competition in which rounds were danced three at a time, 100 per cent felt that they have overlooked a dancer due to mapping issues or the combination of certain dancers on stage at one time. 100 per cent have struggled to equally split attention between three dancers on stage at one time and 100 per cent believe that dancers performing both heavy and light shoe round two at a time at a competition would help improve accuracy of adjudication.
95 per cent of all survey participants agree that dancing both heavy and light shoe rounds two at a time would help decrease stress and/or anxiety for dancers as well as increase competition fairness.
The effect of this change on scheduling time was brought to our attention. So we did the math* for the example of heavy shoe rounds danced at the World Championships. Considering the competition numbers from Worlds 2022, the greatest amount of time added if boys heavy shoe rounds were danced two at a time would be 17 minutes. The greatest amount of time added if girls (day two) heavy shoe round was danced two at a time would be 33 minutes. We honestly believe that these time additions are minimal and could be easily worked into the schedule of a week-long competition.
What are some other topics you hope to discuss on your page?
The Irish Dancer Forum: The goal is to voice the concerns of the community. For those that answered the optional opinion form, several issues that have been brought up by those responding to the questionnaire are:
- Improving objectivity of scoring and point distribution in competition, and consideration for an overhaul of the system such as in gymnastics and figure skating
- The need for clear consequences for rule-breakers
- Continuing professional development for certified adjudicators and teachers including training on ethics
- The need for a process for the opinions and concerns of dancers to be heard and acted upon
- Dancer representation at the CLRG level
- Addition of a 25 and over age group
- Accessibility and affordability
- Revisiting policy on six-month competition ban
- Independent auditing of events
How has the feedback been from judges and teachers, if any?
The Irish Dancer Forum: The feedback from teachers and adjudicators aligned with responses from dancers. Teachers and adjudicators represented 8 per cent and 3 per cent of survey participants, respectively.
Do you think Irish dancing needs to further develop to keep up with the changing times? And how do you think social media impacts the Irish dance world?
The Irish Dancer Forum: Irish dance has evolved as a sport and as an art immensely in the last 20-30 years. Thanks to popular dance shows, it now reaches all corners of the world. The sport will continue to evolve, and therefore the Irish dance world, including the organisations designed to preserve and promote it. There are many areas where the Irish dance world needs to grow to keep up with changing times. We hope to address these as they are brought up by the community.
Social media does promote and share dancers’ love of Irish dance, but we believe that the dancers and the sport should be celebrated and shared. Social media can be a huge platform for inspiration and motivation for Irish dancers — it was a great way to stay connected and share our passion during the pandemic! We love the increasing resources that are available to dancers, in terms of mindset coaching, physical training, and advice from champions all over the world, like the articles from ID Globe!
In terms of competition, we now have social media rules from CLRG. Instead we hope to see efforts towards improving the fairness of the judging system.
What are your plans for the future of this account?
The Irish Dancer Forum: Future plans include growing the forum to obtain feedback from a larger audience of Irish dancers. From there, addressing common themes, concerns, and needs of dancers and sharing those on our platform and with CLRG. The focus will remain on the Irish dancers above all.
You can follow The Irish Dancer Forum on Instagram for updates and look out for their next survey coming soon
*These calculations took into account the full music length of heavy jig and hornpipe tunes, as well as the time for the dancer exchange, which was taken as the average of times randomly sampled from the All Ireland Championships.
