A little bit about myself: I am an Irish dancer, I've been doing it for two years and I'm back with it after a six-month hiatus. First of all, I want to put out there that I have a lot of respect for the sport--because that's what it is. When you boil it all down, we work just as hard as a lot of athletes. The girls and guys who do competitive Irish dancing and Irish dance shows on a daily basis bust their asses harder than most people ever will. I've done it for two years and I still have so much to learn.
I started Ugly Solos because, honestly, a good percentage of Irish dance dresses are just that. At least they are in my opinion. And nothing that I say on this blog is law. If you think some of them are pretty, you have the right to that opinion. As the old statement says: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Same goes with ugliness.
--Anyway--
We (by "we", I mean the Irish dance community as a whole) have gotten to the point that Irish dance is really not about the dancing anymore. It's about who has the most hair or the most stand-out dress and year after year it's getting more and more ridiculous--designwise and pricewise. We've even thrown color theory out the window. And the result? A lot of dresses look like the fabric store threw up on them. And it's almost impossible to get one for under $500, even used. It's part of the reason why I'll quit competing once I hit Prizewinner--it just gets way too pricey after that point. And it wouldn't be as bad if how far you go in competition wasn't directly related to how many thousands of dollars you pour into it. Personally, I'd rather use that money to take my family on a nice vacation than spend it on a dress I'm only going to dance in a handful of times.
How many dancers are in this situation? Dancers who may WANT to go to Nationals or to Worlds and have the talent and ability to do so and really can't because, I hate to say this, mom and dad can't afford it. The economy sucks. People are out of work. Fundraisers help, but a lot of the expenses are out of mom and dad's pockets (or in my case, my own). Not every girl can afford a brand-new solo dress--which easily run into the thousands of dollars USED--every year, or the travel expenses from going cross-country to a feis every other weekend. And if you or your parents can, you're fortunate. Sadly, aside from the dancing, those are the two things that are really going to get you far in the Irish dance world. And, unfortunately, that fact isn't going away anytime soon.
Because I'm not one to complain without taking some sort of action, and the ugly dresses aren't going away anytime soon, I have a plan. I want to hold some kind of fundraiser for one Irish dancer in the St. Louis area whose parents may not have the money to buy her a dress. I've been there (not with Irish dance), and I know how disappointing it is as a child to not be able to have the same opportunities as other kids your age because mom or dad can't afford to give them to you. I want to find a truly talented, truly deserving dancer and I want to be able to buy her a dress. Even if it is, in my opinion, butt ugly. As long as it makes a deserving dancer happy, I can live with that. Because at the end of the day, ugly is only in the eye of the beholder.
