In the grade levels at competitions, Beginner - Prizewinner, each dancer is given a mark out of 100 by his or her adjudicator. Each adjudicator has a slightly different “scale.” For example, for one judge, 85 might be the highest score they give out, whereas another judge might be more generous and give their top dancer a 95. The highest mark wins, second highest is awarded second and so on.

But in Championship and Oireachtas competitions, a dancer is graded by three adjudicators and their championship result is based on all three dances. If you have three judges and they each give each dancer a score out of 100 based on a personal scale, it becomes a mathematical nightmare backstage to add and average every judges score for each round.

To make tabulating easier, each judge’s marks (raw scores) are converted into corresponding “Irish Points” using a chart created for commission competitions. The Irish Points are vaguely logarithmic, in that 1st place= 100 points, 2nd place = 75, 3rd place= 65 etc, until 50th place = 1. This gives higher marks by single judges more weight than average marks by more judges. In other words, if a dancer gets a first place from one judge somewhere, it will increase their overall placing in the competition by a surprising amount. Conversely, this gives dancers that get a first place from two judges a higher lead than a dancer that was only placed first by one of the judges.

For example, in a 3 judge competition it is almost impossible to Not get first with 2 judges agreeing that 1st place is warranted, since with 200 Irish points, the 3rd judge would need to place a dance 7th or worse to overcome the 25 point bonus between 1st and 2nd. This scoring method helps ensure that a single bad adjudicator does not unfairly ruin the results. At a standard 3 judge Feis competition, a unanimous 1st place score is 300 (100 from each judge). At Regional Oireachtas competitions, there are 5 judges who rate all three dance programs, creating the possibility of a perfect score of 500. At the World Championships (Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne), there are 7 judges, which means that 700 would be perfect if all 7 judges agree that one dancer performed the best.

Thank you to www.mjpacademy.com for this great explanation. 

Irish Points vs Raw Scores

University of Limerick’s

Irish World Academy

For those who envision going “pro” in the Trad Irish music or Irish Dance world, the University of Limerick offers a noteworthy Bachelor of Arts degree that has produced numerous success stories over the years.

Recognizing the need to educate students in the art of Irish Music and/or Dance along with essential business skills, the BA program at the University of Limerick is a unique degree for those interested in the arts. The four-year bachelor’s degree is designed to provide dancers and musicians the skills to succeed from an accredited and respected university in the heart of Ireland.  

According to the school's website: With nearly 12,000 students, including more than 2,000 international students each year, the University of Limerick is a young and enterprising university with a proud record of innovation in education and scholarship.

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Galway Girls' Brilliant Advice

IDM's 8 day, 7 night tour of Ireland is underway and the group is having an incredible experience in the home of Irish Dancing.

After visiting the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, the group traveled to Galway City to enjoy some good Irish "craic" and a bit of dancing too!

While in Galway, dancers were able to meet three of the original eight Galway Girls,  an Irish Dance troupe from the Hession School of Irish Dancing in Galway, Ireland.

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What Judges Look For!

Sharon Whelan MacSweeney ADCRG, BG of the Whelan Academy of Irish Dance 

Offers Important Advice to Dancers. *Partial reprint of our article - read more in our July/August issue

What big competitions have you judged?

I have judged the Australian Nationals, New Zealand Nationals, many North American qualifiers along with judging in Ireland and England.

Each of these competitions filled me with great pride because when my parents immigrated from Ireland and registered my sisters and I at dance lessons, little did they know that it would be such a worldwide phenomenon.

It is a joy watch to watch dancers from all over the world perform a dance form that I love so much. I am very lucky to be such an active adjudicator and to judge throughout the United States on a regular basis.

Dancers often ask how adjudicators handle common blunders such as trips, slips and falls. Do you mark down dancers for these issues?

All three of these can be quite different. You need to be able to evaluate the situation quickly and determine what the cause was. Sometimes it is as easy as a slippery part of the floor but other times it can be caused by over dancing or aggressive dancing. A sign of a good dancer is one that can continue their performance and overcome a slip or a knock from another dancer.

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Murray Academy raises $3000 In support of dance families

On May 19th, the Murray Academy hosted their annual spring feis in Stratham, NH, USA.

Dancers traveled from all over North America to attend the popular feis.

The feis was organised by the dance school's Parent's Club, Cara Rince which aptly translates to "Friend of Dance."

The club's goal is to support the Murray Academy dancers traveling to major competitions.  

Prior to the feis, the group worked tirelessly to create a "FEIS-TASTIC" raffle basket which included donations from Irish Dancing Magazine, Elevation Designs, Camelia Rose, and Reel Champ socks, along with other items donated by the parents of the Murray Academy families.

The raffle was a huge success, raising over $3,000 to offset costs of dancers attending the recent North American Irish Dance Championships.

Murray Academy's parent-run group works hand in hand with Anne Murray MacRitchie, TCRG to continually support the dancers in achieving their goals in Irish Dance. 

Now that the annual spring feis is done and dusted, the school is planning a NEW Winter Blackout Feis in January 2020.  Learn more at www.murrayacademy.com

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