Tamasine's blog..

So the last few days have been good fun as I have been working with the judging panel of this years Design a Dress Competition to pick the semi finalists. Just 20 could go through and we had over 300 entries so it was a long job... and a tough one.

We just couldn't make our minds up but finally we all managed to agree on the top 20 that now ready and waiting for your votes to put just 10 into the grand final! Visit this page now to check them out and read details of how to vote!

And well done to every single one of you who entered! I as totally shocked by the level of designs this year.... each year they just get better and better!

******AN COIMISÚN WORLDS LOGO COMP WINNER!!!!!*****
So, here's the news you've been waiting for... Your votes were counted and sent to An Comisiun's panel of expert judges. They narrowed the final 10 down even further based on your votes.

The panel then voted for the overall winner.... and we are so proud to announce the winner is Christina Dolzall (23) who dances at the Gray-Gillan-Owens School in the USA!
Here is her winning logo that will now be used as the official logo of the 2009 World Championships in Philadelphia!

She was also IDM readers FAVE so good taste clearly runs through the world of Irish dancers! Well done Christina! Congratulations!

Make sure you all look out for the follow-up story and pictures in an upcoming issue of Irish Dancing Magazine.

So after Dearbhla and Gavin got back from the Eurovision Dance Contest in Glasgow, we caught up with Dearbhla Lennon to find out how she felt! Here's what she had to say!

How you got on at the Eurovision Dance contest?

Lets just say that the experience was huge. So, we didn't win but we did our country proud (or so I'm told) We ended up 11th, which was a little disappointing to be honest when we had worked so hard. I was really pleased with our performance as I felt we danced with pride and integrity and I was really proud of Gavin, who is in effect a novice dancer. The judges awarded us 29 points out of a possible 48, which was deflating to say the least. The judges were all from an IDSF (International Dance Sport Federation) background and very well versed in latin and ballroom dancing. I'm not sure they understood the skill level behind Irish Dancing and don't think they really appreciated it. However, we did relatively well on the public vote and got a smashing 8 points from our friends in the UK- so thanks a million to all those in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales who gave us their votes!
 
The feedback that was given by the judges?
There was no feedback unfortunately, other than their 29 points...
 
 What you would do differently if you were to enter again?
That's a really tough question. Hindsight is wonderful and it's great to analyse what went wrong after the fact. We really couldn't have worked any harder so that wasn't an issue. the thing is, aside from Gavin and I actually dancing, there is a big team behind the scenes working on things such as music, costume, hair/makeup, choreography etc so it's a case of looking at all of those things and seeing how or where improvements could be made for again. While I have absolutely no regrets about taking part in the contest and will consider it forever as one of the biggest experiences in my life, I'm not sure I would do it again....but never say never eh?!
 
RE:- THE TIGHTS!!!
They were totally not my idea.... As a dancer all my life, I'm well aware how ugly treble shoes are and that when paired with black tights, they don't look so bad. I tried really hard to fight my corner on this one but was knocked down. We did try dark purple/dark blue tights but they insisted on the flesh ones in the end (i was wearing flesh coloured tights with fishnets over them, not bare legs). SO on behalf of all the people out there screaming at the tele on Saturday night saying "What in God's name is she wearing on her lges/feet, i apologise, but it honestly wasn't my fault!!

Also, with the dance style, yes- the rules did state that the routine had to be a "freestyle routine, to incorporate elements of traditional Latin & ballroom and a national flavour". so that was part of the brief that we couldn't just do straight Irish dancing; believe me, I would have been much happier sticking with what I know and love...

The general atmosphere of the event?
The atmosphere on the night was incredible. There were over 2,000 people screaming in the auditorium and 125million viewers watching so the anticipation and nervous excitement was palpable. I will always remember the roar when we were introduced to the crowd and our Irish flag was brought up on three huge screens behind us. The UK, being the home crowd had the biggest cheer on the night but there's no doubt we had the second biggest- our family and friends really did us proud and it's a memory I will cherish forever. The fervent waving of tricolours when we appeared onstage made us feel so supported and certainly eased the nerves a little. We also had to do a group routine near the end of the show and all the dancers performing together created a great atmosphere.
 
 View of the other performances?
Some of the other performers were incredibly talented. I must admit though- the brief of there being one professional dancer and one celebrity in each couple was pushed to the limit. Some countries had two professional dancers competing, which I thought was more than a little unfair. Greece, for example, had two dancers who competed together for years- but he's now a "celebrity windsurfer" so they qualified him as a celebrity when in fact he was a champion dancer. Many other countries did this also. The "national flavour" was also pretty thin on the ground in some of the other routines- I think the Azerbaijhan couple factored a traditional instrument into the mix of their "Phantom of the Opera" music and this constituted their national flavour...I don't want to sound like sour grapes but I suppose this was pushing the rules to the limits. All in all, there is no arguing- it was a fantastic competition with some really, really talented dancers, many of whom I admired greatly (The Danes were awesome and got top marks from the judges). They were all super- athletic and bendy- that's certainly something that Irish Dancers are not - we have super straight backs and can't bend just the same as other dancers can! I was so proud  to be up there doing my national dance (albeit a version of at times) and was super proud to have my mum/teacher and the rest of my family in the audience.
 
Plans for the future?
Wow, where do I start??
Well after the contest finished, I was straight back to my day job on the Monday morning here at The Afternoon Show in RTE in Ireland. I'm also back teaching dancing with Scoil Rince Mona Ni Rodaigh and at present we're trying to get the gang ready for the Great Britain championships and of course the qualifying which is coming up soon.
On top of that I have a programme coming out on TG4 (the Irish Language Tv station here) in October called Faoi Lán Cheoil. This involved them following me for six months while I learned to play the concertina. It was an amazing learning curve and sure you never know, I might just keep it up! The programme is part of a series of 8, where they followed other personalities (Jeremy Irons - cool eh?, Adrian Dunbar -actor, Andy Reid - Irish Soccer international, Paddy Courtney - comedien, Marie Jones- playwright, and more) as they learned to play different instruments. I got to hang out with the whole gang for a weekend filming the final programme so it was just brill.
So it's certainly busy here and I'm also in talks at the minute regarding future TV projects so fingers crossed I'll have more news in the near future - YOu never know, I may eventually get to host the Irish "So you think you can Dance" which would be my ultimate dream job!

How good is this! Hype battles Trintiy irish dancers in downtown Milwaukee

Please don't panic over the next few weeks if you see a few odd things happening on the site. We are upgrading this wonderful site for you, but because you couldn't exist without it we are leaving it online while we do so.... and as with anything, changes can cause a few sort term problems! If there are problems that seem not to get corrected do drop us a line but the likelihood is we know and are working to sort it out.

I was checking out what you're chatting about in the forums today and discovered that Reelbigmouth and Twinkletoes met up in England this summer and made this wonderful video of them dancing! It's amazing to see dancers from the other sides of the world, who have met through this site becoming such great pals! Way to go girls!

It's with much excitment and celebration that we can announce that a new Guinness World Record for the World's Longest Riverdace line has been set in the USA!.

Bill Lee from the USA read IDM's story ( Jan 08) about the current record holders and decided he knew a group of dancers capable of breaking it! And he was right! He did!... even in 90º heat!

In an IDM exclusive, Bill told us, "I decided to organize our own attempt here in the states. I am happy to announce that on July 20, 2008 at the 35th Annual Rockland County Feis, 312 dancers broke the Guinness World Record of 216 held by a group of Irish Dancers from Dublin Ireland."

Watch the video of their World Record here, and check out the November issue of IDM for a full interview with Bill and some of the dancers involved!

Well done guys and girls! We are so pleased for you!

So here is Irelands performance on Saturday's Eurovision Dance contest.

On Saturday the 6th of September, fourteen couples took the floor to compete in the second Eurovision Dance Contest. Each couple included professional dancer and a national celebrity and the couples had just two minutes to show the world what they could do and convince us to vote for them!

Ireland's entry, Gavin O'Fearraigh & Dearbhla Lennon, came 11th out of 14. Not as good as we had hoped for here at IDM!

We haven't had a chance to talk to the couple yet to get thier reactions but here are a few of our initial observations:

1. It was nice they tried to incorperate the traditional steps into thier dance, to show a bit more of the Irish culture- many of the other countries did tango, or latin, and didn't bother to incorperate any national steps into their dances!

2. We loved the costumes ( see below) but the IDM fashion crew think that Dearbhla should have worn dark tights. All the other dancers in the competition wore high heals but our guys were obviously wearing hard shoes which in comparison to the others, looked a little strange. For those of us familiar with the shoes they look normal, but to the rest of the world they looked a bit clumpy in especially when set next to a set of 4 inch glittery stilettos! Dark tights would have hleped to disguise the clumpy nature perhaps??

3. Why didn't the guys go for a full on Irish routine. The music sounded Turkish even though it was by IDMs fave Irish band Kila?? As we all know, when full on Irish dance is done well, it looks amazing! The guys watered down the routine with other styles and it didn't have the same wow factor! Shame!

4. But all in all we are so proud of Gavin & Dearbhla! Well done guys!

WE love this video by candace_28- It's funny and informative!

and this one is Evie's video as she mentions below! way to go Evie!