Irish dancing

image found in my 'clip art' folder, unfortunately I have no idea where it came from

A friend has recently started an irish dance school. My youngest son is a bit of a mover so I thought that it would be good to introduce him to a different kind of dance. It hasn't grabbed him but I keep dragging him in to watch the lessons whilst I dance instead.

I've always liked the look of irish dancing. I still remember the first performance of Riverdance during the intermission of the Eurovision song contest when my feet couldn't help but tap along. More recently I've been wowed by the clog dance flashmob documentary (BBC4), I love that people are keeping these old traditional dances alive.

I'm not so keen on the silly dresses and curly wigs that some young girls wear to perform. I'm not sure where these evolved from but they don't say traditional dance to me, they just look like slightly scary dolls! I do like the more simple modern dance look as per Riverdance but unfortunately it's a look that I'll probably never be able to carry off. For me think more 'elephants on parade'. At least my dress is truly traditional, my everyday clothing.

But sometimes these lessons make me feel so old. I can see what to do, I can see how to do it but my feet won't move the same way. Ten years ago I would have caught on so much more quickly. I guess that's what happens if you ignore your body for as long as I have. But I have faith that I will get there. I'm already far enough that I need to find some proper shoes. It is also good to be doing something just for me. With my son sat in the corner playing games on my phone!