Strictly Irish Dancing on TLC

Strictly Irish Dancing premiered on American TV this evening at 10 EST (and now, midnight, if you missed it).  Like Jig (which aired on TLC in Janurary), I had seen this show before.  Shortly after this two-part documentary aired on TV3 in Ireland, some kind soul posted it in seven parts on Youtube so the diaspora of Irish dancers could see what the buzz was about.  Again, like Jig, I wanted to watch it on TLC to see how they edited it to fit in an hour, and what parts of the documentary they chose to focus on, and what was deemed as not important.  And also again, if you're looking for up to the minute account of the show, check out On My Toes!

The good things: 

• TLC chose to focus on the stories of four dancers: Catie Foley and Jessica Hindley, Jack Quinn, and Claire Greaney.  By whittling the show down from it's original length, TLC was able to focus on more of the drama and the back story of the dancers for maximum TLC drama.  The show did leave out explaining all the technical aspects of dance and the historical context which is honestly probably only interesting to those involved in Irish dance.
• The editors did a good job of explaining the way competitions work, as well as quickly explaining things in a vernacular that non-dancer's should understand.

And the not-so-good:

• The show seemed to skip around a lot.  The introduction of the dancers felt rushed.  The amount of skipping around with the editing seemed confusing, and I'm an Irish dancer who has seen the documentary before!  I understand the reasons for doing this (time constraint), but it really devalued the reasons of why I liked this particular documentary over Jig. (see below)
• TLC chose to play up the rivalries between dancers, specifically Catie and Jessica, which in actuality was not present in unedited documentary.  The main reason why I was more partial to this documentary (other than I was there) was simply because it focused more on history of dance and costuming, etc. than Jig did.  Jig chose to focus on dancer rivalries and it worked.  With this show edited to be something similar, it felt bland, but that could have just been the voice over. (see below)
• The male announcer voice-over sounded like a generic go-to guy for any TV show.  I know the "hidden world of Irish dance" needs to be explained to the people who are not familiar, but couldn't we have had an Irish voice-over announcer?  Or maybe tried to explain some Irish dance terms? (I'm looking at you, 'call back'.)

It's great that competitive Irish dancing is still getting spotlight on a popular TV station.  Hopefully this show keeps inspiring young and young-at-heart dancers to love and appreciate this sport.  TLC's interest in Irish dance shows is all set to culminate in their eight-part "Irish Dancing Series"  to premier in 2013.  Is this the Irish Dancing Tweens we all cringed about and hoped would never happen?  Or is TLC going to move more in the direction of Jig and Strictly Irish Dancing?  Only time will tell...

Goals: Sleep...

Days till Os: 169

Jig on TLC

Jig the Irish dance documentary premiered on American television this evening at 8. (If you missed it, it's on again at 1am.) Here are a few of my reactions. If you're looking for more of a blow-by-blow account, stop on by Moira's blog, On My Toes.

The Good:

• Overall, the documentary was a good set up for the "Irish Dancing Tweens" show they have planned to premier this summer. The focus was on Julia, Brogan, John, and Joe. They were also able to edit the 99 minutes down to 60 without leaving anything important pertaining to these four stories out.
• Lots of Joe Bitter time. Watching him dance, especially his hard shoe pieces, is a real treat. His rhythms are so precise and intricate. Even my sister (who tries to stay as far away from the Irish dance world as possible) commented that he's quite good. If I was about five years younger, I would be so smitten because not only is he a phenomenal dancer, he is quite good looking as well.
• There was plenty of drama with the Julia/Brogan story. You can't help but root for both to win because they are both hard workers. The portrayal of their story is fun to watch: you have Julia (an American) who's parents will allow her to do things outside of weekly classes to succeed (private lessons, physical therapy, etc.), whereas Brogan (Irish) puts in a lot of hard work on her own.

The Not-So-Good:

• Old people dance too! One of my favorite parts of the documentary is watching the Claire/Simona/Suzanne story. The trio of them are such amazing dancers because of life-long dedication. It's watching their stories that make me want to strap on my shoes and drill till my feet bleed (probably because I'm competitive). Because of this, I'm sad they edited this part out. On that note, I understand the reationale behind it: they are not teens and TLC only allotted an hour for the show.
• Their music choice to dub over John's set was questionable. The music that is dubbed over Julia/Brogan's soft shoe round is completely out of left field. I'm sorry, Irish dancing gods.
• People outside of the Irish dancing world were probably a little confused with the terminology and the set up of competitions. I feel they didn't explain much. Newcomers to Irish dance who did watch could definitely appreciate the dancing, but I also fear that it will draw a lot of comparison to "Toddlers and Tiaras" because of the costumes and stage appearance. Our parents aren't that crazy, right?

I hope the documentary brings in new interest in Irish dance, and starts to expel the public's image of us dancing in a line like Riverdance. It's a great dive into the world of competitive Irish dance, as opposed to seeing a choreographed show. I can't wait to see what TLC does for the "Big Jig" show...

Goals: work on left side of Kilkenny step

Days till NANs: 177

Move over Toddlers and Tiaras...

This is going to be so bad for our humble little community. Give it four years, and here's our future:

The funny thing is that I had always said Toddlers and Tiaras is like Irish dancing gone wrong... I had hoped they wouldn't ever find us for real and upend our quiet sport. Unfortunately, this will only add and create drama that could destroy our community. I am torn between being appalled that TLC is making this show, but also morbidly interested to see what they do. My hope is that it doesn't turn into a Dance Moms-type show...

Goals: Stamina, cross

Days till Os: 17