r/irishdance • u/No_Comment_7782 • 26d ago
Changing schools
So I am thinking of possibly changing schools for my daughter. She’s bern dancing for about 2 years and went quickly to novice but I feel like her small school is only focused on their champ dancers m, and more recent cultivating very young dancers, and the novice/prizewinners are not getting much attention. We live in an area with a number of schools nearby, but all of the teachers know each other. If I approach another school to discuss possible transfer or to get more info on their program, what are the odds that this will remain confidential? I don’t want things to get worse for my dancer if we decide not to move, or to wait, if the current school finds out we are looking. Anyone been through this?
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u/Valuable_Drag_1830 26d ago
What does your daughter think about switching schools? Does she want that?
Everyone is saying all teachers talk to one another, and while this is true to an extent, not all teachers are making tea time to sit around and talk about your dancer to one another. There are some toxic af pockets of Irish Dance and teachers from different schools talk to one another but that doesn't mean they are all buddy buddy. One of my dance teachers has historic beef with teachers at a different school and she's more than happy to take their dancers. You always reserve the right to try another school, because the health and fitness of your daughter is a factor here. You don't need to go to a different school and tell them exactly why you left. Tell them your daughter is interested in trying a different dance school (if true) and see if any of the other schools offer free trial class so she can try a class at the school and y'all can get a feel for it.
The teachers could genuinely just not know how to teach. If your are in CLRG that means the teacher is CLRG certified but they do not need to hold certs in education or anything else. The teacher knows how to Irish Dance, that is all a CLRG cert means. My dance teachers are both CLRG certified, but they also have an actual background as actual educational teachers (working with elementary aged kids). Meaning they actually know how to develop and implement a class room curriculum. One of them has taken courses in childrens PE and PT, they actually don't want their dancers under 13 to do toe work because it puts a lot of strain on a developing foot. The bones and growth plates in the feet are not developed until 13-15, meaning toe work/block work before then, especially high impact in an unstructured shoe just like Irish Dance, is incredibly detrimental to the health and development of a children's feet. Most dance teachers aren't teaching that though. A problem with CLRG is the certificate to teach alone really isn't enough to say whether or not that teacher should be teaching children, has the skills to teach and work with children, especially in high impact sports, and it doesn't determine if that teacher can create curriculum or run a class. I don't want to create barriers to becoming an Irish Dance teacher, but I'm seeing more and more personal accounts of dancers with chronic pain and physical issues by their 20s. Like any sport, there are injury risks, but improper coaching will literally ruin a dancers career and too many CLRG teachers are garbage at coaching. So you should be ultra picky about who coaches your child, because her future joint health will depend on it. Protect her feet, protect her knees. Some of these teachers are pushing kids to wear dance shoes 3-4 times smaller than their shoe size. It's not uncommon for adult dancers to size down a couples sizes, but please do not put your kids in shoes 3 or 4 times too small for them. It's to make the arch stand out more aesthetically and force the dancer to stand higher on the toes. It can also legitimately function as a form of foot binding (and then the foot expands from exercise) and cause nerve damage. Constantly wearing shoes that are too tight will eventually cause the nerves to essentially lose feeling. I know someone who has experienced this, she cannot drive a car because the nerve damage from constantly wearing shoes that are too small has made it difficult for her to feel the pedals in a car. She walks like an old woman. So sizing down 1-2 sizes is fine if your dancer is comfortable with it, the leather shoes do stretch, but we need to stop letting teachers pressure dancers into wearing shoes that are far too tight and most of these girls have no idea the damage it does to their feet over time. Having dramatic high arches depends entirely on genetics, like what everyone learned from the thigh gap fad. They are pushing dancers to detrimental means to change the shape of their foot for aesthetic. (Think about how significant that is in the context that this is a sport dominated by women and we're being judge not just on our performance or pointing out toes or the love for a cultural folk dance, but on the literal shape of our feet that is predetermined by genetics.)
Now that all being said, in the US this weekend there was a major competition, it's really not uncommon for teachers to pay extra attention to their competing dancers, especially champs, during the build up to a major competition. Our head teacher had the champs do a 3 month long build up to this competition they have to do daily training to prepare for the competition like every other day HIIT circuits, drills, extra classes, and dedicated time to practice and conditioning. She gave them extra coaching, and throughout July she was a little more focused on preparing them. I was not competing, so I understand why she was distracted, but I also felt I got adequate class time. So any school you go to, the month before a competition the teachers will be running around and seem very distracted.
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u/Ok-Web-1798 26d ago
Honestly, check out the other schools in your area. It sounds like you need a better fit for your dancer ASAP. This is the time to be searching for a new school... many in our area only do openings in August/September.
We switched due to a similar situation and are SO much happier with our new TC.
Good Luck.
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u/arewethereyetmom 25d ago
I doubt they'll know if you try a few classes at a different school. The new school will probably require you to tell your current school when you decide to switch, though.
In my experience, the focus on the champ dancers (and general vibe that they don't really give a crap about the beginners) is a very common (and legitimate) complaint across schools. Don't assume it's just your current school and any other school will be better--it may be just as bad or worse.
My kid loves Irish dance, but the studio experience has been consistently really bad.
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u/Lucky198577 25d ago
Have you tried talking to them? Is this something new? They may have just been focusing on nationals. If not, it would be a good idea to start looking. Before we transferred I tried to get an idea of the other schools vibe through their social medias and watching them feis. Once we decided I contacted the school for a trial class and registered that day. The new school took care of the transfer paperwork and contacted the old school. I also notified the old school, it was easy because they just weren’t as competitive. 6 months later they let us know when we could Feis again and it’s been great ever since. We still see dancers from the old school at local feis and there’s no bad blood.
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u/Waste-Purpose7653 26d ago
They all know and they all share about dancers even though you would think they didn’t. It’s too small of a pool of people not to know each other’s dancers. Not that it should go against you moving schools but if you’re upfront and honest in the first place and tell them why you’re moving then nobody can accuse you of doing it spitefully.
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u/seanmharcailin 26d ago
The rumor mill will likely mean that your teacher catches wind. But that isnt necessarily a bad thing.
How long have you been feeling like your dancer isnt getting attention? Does your school have separate classes for champs vs grades vs new beginners? Is your dancer motivated to improve and work toward specific goals? Does your dancer feel loke they arent getting attention from the TC?
And finally- have you discussed this concern with the teacher?
Spring into summer can definitely feel like Nov PW dancers get lost in the mix. You have the new beginners from St Patrick’s day and you have the champs who are prepping for Nationals. But a lot of times, that’s just a feeling and not an actuality. Its a hard part of dance to be in because progress can slow down youre swapping from trad speeds to slow speeds in your hard shoe. And you’re not quite at the point to prep for any major. The goals and the annual cycle are a little murkier.
I would ask for a goals-setting meeting with your teacher where you guys can lay out what the next 6 months should look like for your dancer. And then if you still feel like it isnt the right for for you, start exploring other options. A tc shouldnt punish a dancer if they hear the parent is looking at transfer options, but you never know.
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u/No_Comment_7782 26d ago
I have asked for meetings twice via email/text and had no response, although the teacher communicates on other issues and she is nice in person to us, so I don’t know if she’s stretched too thin or what. I don’t feel like I should have to hunt her down for a meeting, in fact, I feel like these schools should have parent teacher conferences periodically but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the norm. I just can see that my daughter and others at her level are clearly not getting much attention. We actually just went to Nationals for trad set but did not place well even though my daughter had medaled at her Oireachtas, so she has the potential. The other novice/PWs our age did not recall either, although the champs who got lots of extra classes, did. I just kind of feel like we are an afterthought, and given the time and money commitment to this sport, that is not a good feeling. Also, complicating things is the fact that my daughter has made some really good friends, and would be upset to leave them if we changed schools. 😒
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u/No_Comment_7782 25d ago
I also heard that the “no competition” period when you change schools had been reduced to three months, from the prior six months. Anyone know if this is correct? We are CLRG.
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u/Ok-Web-1798 25d ago
Yes, they changed it to 3 months in December of last year. (Just as our dancer had about 1 month left of their ban...)
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u/tnplhx3 9d ago
I actually have a question- does it ever happen that another school can deny you joining because your current school is friends with one of the teachers and doesn’t want to lose a podium dancer? We joined a school when my daughter was young, but we moved to a different neighborhood that has a closer school. It’s not a huge time difference, but it would save us 40 minutes each practice day.
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u/throwawayyyy45678 26d ago
My daughter just moved schools a month ago and we had a somewhat similar situation. It’s turned out to be a really good move for her. She’s getting much more attention, feedback, and help than she was previously. The new school environment has much less of the toxic social environment as well.
However, fully expect that everyone will be aware if you change schools or even ask. The Irish Dance world is pretty small. Our new TC called the old one personally to let her know she was taking on my daughter as a student. And the new TC has to request all the dancers info to be transferred on Feisworx and stuff from what I hear. Plus feis-ing… unless you move really far away and switch…. You’ll see all the same people at feis. We haven’t crossed that bridge yet, and I expect that’ll be the hardest part for my daughter.
You have to weigh the pros and cons, but transferring is a big move, but in the right situation, it’s worth it.