Looking for an Irish Dance School? An Irish Dance Teacher?

Before you even begin to look, you'll have to know what you're looking for.

First of all, if you hope to become a true Irish dancer, it's best not to buy any DVDs or any other methods self-instruction before you're registered for a class.

Learn at least a little bit about Irish dancing.

Learn about the levels (which differ from country to country), about the costumes, the major solo and group dances, the different organizations. In this blog I am trying to provide you with accurate, reliable information. Be careful with other websites as they information they give you may not be correct.

You'll want to brush up your vocabulary.

You'll need to know that a TCRG is Irish dancing certification. To compete, you must be registered with a school that has at least one teacher with a TCRG. Other dance studios may have teachers without TCRGs who may be legitimate, but you are much better off with a certified school. A feis (pronounced "fesh," plural is feisanna is pronounced "fesh-AH-nuh") is an Irish dancing competition.

When you're ready to start looking for a school, good start to finding yourself a class is searching online.

Try Google. While Irish dancing schools are more common in certain areas than others, they still may be difficult to find. Irish dancing is not as popular as other forms of dance such as tap, jazz, and ballet. Write down email addresses and phone numbers for all the schools in your area, if there is more than one.

Once you've gathered contact information for schools in your area, start making phone calls.

Use the knowledge you gained during your research in Step 2 to decide if a given school is right for you. Things to consider are the school's certification or lack thereof, the locations and distance from your home, the number of certified teachers if any, and class times.

Here are a few questions you'll want to ask them.

• Do any of the teachers have a TCRG? (Remember, you can't compete without at least one TCRG, and if there isn't one in the school, there's a chance they might not teach Irish dancing properly)

• If there is no TCRG, has the teacher ever taken dance from a TCRG before, or is he/she eligible to sit for the exam?

• How long has the school been running?

• Is competition required?

• How competitive is the school, in general?

• Does the school participate in shows, and if so, are all dancers required to? (Irish dancing is in high demand for performance, especially around St. Patrick's Day)

Make phone calls to all of the schools.

Once you have gathered information from all of the schools you found, consider the answers given to the questions you asked and use them to decide which school you'll choose.

Once you've picked a school, have fun! Go to classes as you like, compete if you're eligible and you desire to, and make new friends.