Better late than never

Last night my Irish dance teacher managed to convince me that I should compete in the upcoming National Capital Feis. A Feis (pron. fesh), is an Irish dance and music competition. It's a chaotic event at best, chalk full of frayed nerves, accordion music, hug curly wigs and kids running around in bloomers and costumes. While it can be quite daunting, competing is a necessary part of Irish dancing in order to move up in rank.

Here’s the funny part…I’m old! Not many people my age are competing. Most dancers start out a very early age and progress to Open Championships by the time they are young adolescents. Better late than never I guess. There are some competitions open to ages 18+, however there often aren’t enough eligible dancers to warrant having a separate adult competition. Essentially, this means that I’ll be dancing with competitors ages 15 & over. This scares me! I’m not ancient, but I’m probably not as flexible as a 15 year old.

I’m scared that I’ll look like an idiot dancing next to people who are 10 years younger than myself. I don’t want to look like the “big bad adult” trying to steal the young girls’ trophies. My teacher assures me that it is common to combine age groups, but I’m still a little leery. Either way, I seem to have put my foot in it and can’t back out now. The school is so excited that I have decided to compete and they are already pooling resources together to find me an outfit for the day. God Lord, what did I get myself into?!?

In other news, my dance school has offered to perform at my wedding reception. I was really touched by the offer, which would be completely free and voluntary. A lot of the girls love to perform so this gives them the opportunity to get out and dance for an audience. It would also be a nice way to share something that I love with all the guests. They want me to get up and do a few steps with them in my dress…but I just don’t see that happening! Should be fun to have the girls out in full costume…definitely something that will be memorable for everyone.