I was previously asked by a few dancers that moved to Ireland from abroad for information on ‘how to get started in dancing in Ireland’. I will put some of my notes that I gave to them on this web for others later as well. One thing that I was lacking when I moved to Ireland was a dancesport club as I knew it from the country I came from. To the best of my knowledge there aren’t dancesport clubs in Ireland such as some may know from some countries in continental Europe, Russia, etc. That is really pity because dancesport clubs are the ‘hives for dancers’. It is possible to achieve a lot even without the support of a dancesport club (‘DSC’), however it requires a lot more effort, knowledge, and is less likely to happen without the support and also competitive motivation from a dancesport club.

There are dance schools in Ireland. Some teach only ‘social dancing’; some teach only children. From what I have heard some dance schools for children take the role of a ‘dancesport club for children’ well and their students appreciate it. General dancesport clubs have both parts – for children and for adults, so that the children can continue in their development to as good level as they can in adulthood and don’t have to leave dancing. Regarding existence of dancesport clubs in Ireland, I am aware of a foreign dancer working on establishing a dancesport club for latin dancers recently, so if you are here, please, join the discussion. I am also aware of one group of dancers that could also evolve into a regular dancesport club. Apart from that I don’t know of any dancesport clubs as they are in some countries in Europe, while there could be many.

Is Ireland too small to have dancesport clubs? Certainly not. A town of 18000 people in the country I come from has two large dancesport clubs. Why aren’t there dancesport clubs in Ireland then? There would be many more active dancers and more lively competitions then because the main difference between competitive dancing in Ireland and in some other countries in Europe is that dance training in Ireland is pushed to extreme to ‘individual level’ student - teacher, while in other countries it is a more balanced combination of group training and private lessons. This is not good for the dancers and in turn it is not good for the teachers in longer term either because naturally then they have a lot fewer students then they could.

The point of this post and this web altogether is not to say there aren’t dancesport clubs in Ireland, but to help and support their creation. If you are thinking of creating a dancesport club in your region, let us know. You can post your comments and ideas here. If you contact me, I’ll try to help both on this web and otherwise with creation and promotion of your dancesport clubs. We can try to compile a list things that need to be done to set up a dancesport club, so that the information on starting one is available and there are more dancesport clubs to join, more lively competitions among dancesport clubs and more active dancers. Let me know your ideas …

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