idmadmin's blog..

Do you want to see yourself and your friends in IDM? We are scouting about for recent feis-attendees to send in pictures of themselves to be featured in the magazine! Just send across your feis pics, along with which feis the pictures were taken at and who is in the picture, and you might be soon be seeing yourself in IDM!

Email them to: lucy@irishdancing.com

The IDM team is preparing for the NANs 2010 and the excitement in the office has reached fever pitch!

We have got so many amazing subscription offers with some of the best free gifts ever so make sure you don't miss out by dropping by the IDM stand.Click Here for more information.

We will also be taking loads of pictures to go in IDM so get all your friends together and strike a pose for the magazine!

We would love to see any of your own pictures from the event as well so be sure to email them to: lucy@irishdancing.com or post them to: NANS 2010 Pics, IDM, Unit 2.4, Paintworks, Bath Road, Bristol, England BS4 3EN

Lucy x

Hey IDMers,

We have got a very exciting Health and Technique Special coming up in the July issue of IDM and we want you to get involved! A panel of experts are waiting to answer your questions on the following areas:

*TECHNIQUE
*DIET
*FEET PROBLEMS
*MUSCLE/BONE PROBLEMS
*GENERAL HEALTH

So if you have got a question or two that you would like answered by an expert Irish dancer, podiatrist, dietician or orphopaedic specialist, now is your chance!

Send your questions with your name and age to lucy@irishdancing.com by Monday 10th May and I will forward them over to our experts to answer.

This is a brilliant opportunity to get advice and tips for your Irish dancing so make sure you drop me a line.

Lucy

How do you feel about 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!

How about 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?!

What was the general atmosphere of the event like?

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.

What was your 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.

What are your 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!

P.S! 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...

Hi IDM!
As many of you will already know, Gavin O'Fearraigh and I were chosen a while back to represent Ireland at this year's Eurovision Dance Contest. We were really thrilled to be selected and both understand the honour and privelege it is to represent your country at any event- never mind one of this magnitude. So we took the task on and were really in earnest from day one.
Having chosen the music for the piece (It' s atrack called "The Mama Song" by a band called Kila) we set about the choreography, which has been really challenging as it's a fusion of Latin and Irish dance. We were teamed up with a latin choreographer, the very patient Danilo Forte and I choreographed the Irish sections myself. Danilo and I worked together on the choreography for about two weeks before Gavin joined to learn all the steps. As you can imagine, with neither of us having any Latin dance experience, it took us some time to get it right!
We've worked really hard to make our number special and hopefully you'll all enjoy it when you tune in this Saturday night to watch- have your popcorn at the ready, I think it's going to be a really fab show for anyone into their dancing!
We're coming into our final week of rehearsals now and the tension is beginning to mount.
Nerves are possibly starting to take hold but so too is the excitement and anticipation. It feels like I'm about to go to the World C'ships- I know I've put the work in and now it's time to show it off.... The only concern is that it's Live television anything can happen. I've started to panic about small things, like-"what if I fall?" or "what if we go wrong?". At least when you're dancing by yourself you can try to cover up mistakes but as any team dancer knows, this is not the case when you're dancing with others!
Our music is lightning fast so you really don't have time to think about anything much- just getting your behind from A to B and as we're both new to Latin dancing, this is also fairly challenging.
Coming near the end, we're both starting to hurt a little bit. Poor Gavin is tortured with blisters from his new heavy shoes (again, something all you Irish dancers will be very familiar with!!). And poor ole me, I have bruised ribs from all the manhandling! Like all teachers say however, "No pain, no gain" and so we'll battle on.
Our schedule has been really hectic lately so we've had to compremise on rehearsals. This lead to Gavin coming to my hometown of Dundalk to where I teach dancing (with Scoil Rince Mona NI Rodaigh) so that we could use the hall there for an hour or two. The kids were chuffed to have us both there and sure we couldn't miss the opportunity for a wee photo op.
Being so close to the competition now, I have to remind Gavin of one thing. Coming up to the final of Celebrity Jigs N' Reels, when he was tired and sore, I used to say to him " how badly do you want to feel those twinkly papers around you?" reminding him that when the winner is announced, twinkly papers would fall from the sky. This would motivate him to keep going and we both relished the feeling of those papers about us when we eventually won. Right now, we both need to visualise the twinkly papers once again- can you imagine the feeling???? Hopefully this will motivate us to give it one final push into our last week of rehearsals. All we can do is our best and so if we are 110% happy with how we perform, this will be as good as any twinkly papers- regardless of the result.
We leave for Scotland on Tuesday so I'll have to update you on our progress from there. I might even have some inside info at that point as we'll have been to the venue and we'll have more of an idea of what's going to happen.
As you might remember from the Eurovision Song Contest- no country can vote for themselves. This means that viewers in the Republic of Ireland can't vote for us on the night. All you dancers in Northern Ireland and of course, the rest of Europe are eligible to vote, so please get your mobile phones out on Saturday and vote for the Irish Dancers- I promise we'll do you proud!
Until I find a computer in Glasgow, I'll leave you to pass the word on to all your friends!

Thank you so much for your support and hopeully we'll do Ireland proud,
Dearbhla Lennon

Right then- As Editor of a magazine dedicated to Irish Dancing around the world www.irishdancing.com, I have come to the conclusion that I really should learn to Irish Dance.

I used to Ballet dance from the age of 2 and 1/2 up till about 18. Then I did a little dance at uni and just kinda ran out of energy! I.e: I became lazy and got a boyfriend!

However as the dawn of 2007 broke, I realised that the time was right to reintroduce myself to the wonders of dancing!

So this blog will cover the highs and lows of my Irish Dancing lessons.

I don't expect that they will be easy, and I expect to get a very red sweaty face... but hey I will get fit and show my dedication to my job. I kinda figure that to be the best journalist you can be you should not only connect with your readers, but also with the subject you're writing about! So wish me luck...here I go!