World Irish Dance Championships 2011

Adjudicators with President McAleese

I have just arrived back from judging the 41st World Irish Dancing Championships in Dublin, Ireland. It is the first time in 15 years that the Worlds have been back to Dublin and I have to admit it was a stellar event.

The first evening, the Leinster Dance Teachers Association hosted the Teacher’s Reception complete with buffet and a lively band. On the Wednesday evening Beoga was in town, keeping the atmosphere buzzing, and on the final night was the Black Tie Ball full of glitz and glamour!

The Opening Ceremonies took place on the Monday with President Mary McAleese opening the event. She stated ‘there is a huge buzz, energy, enthusiasm and fun in this place today. If we could plug into that we wouldn’t need to talk about renewable energy sources.’ The president was greeted by the Three Irish Tenors and treated to top class dancing by the top 5 winners of Sunday’s competitions.

As one of a panel of 20 adjudicators, we were tasked with choosing the best dancers in competitions that occasionally had 170 or 180 dancers. Each round was judged by 5 adjudicators with the highest and lowest marks dropped in order to achieve a ‘balanced’ result. After the first two rounds, the top dancers to a maximum of 50 progressed to the set dance round where the final decisions were made.

For the team dancing there were panels of 5 or 7 and the highest and lowest marks were not dropped. View the results from this year’s Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne 2011.

The Worlds were held at Citywest which was an excellent venue. There were 3 stages running for most of the week to accommodate the 4,500 dancers entered from over 30 countries. This year’s championships were a huge success and I am sure next year in Belfast, it will be every bit as good if not better!

Finally, congratulations to all those wonderful dancers that competed at the championships. It was an absolute pleasure judging the competitions and I wish all the dancers the best of luck in their upcoming competitions!

The TOP 5 (Under 11) Dancers Performing for the President of Ireland: