Everyone Loves a Parade!

With Oireachtas season [yes, I totally consider this a season] coming to a close, Irish dancers worldwide have been glued to YouTube watching all the latest winners' Parades of Champions... including me! Congrats to all the champions & all the Oireachtas dancers who've danced their best over these last few weeks! You all have so much to be proud of. [For more of my Oireachtas deep thoughts, click here.] And just in case you weren't one of those dancers in the Parade of Champs at your O this year and are feeling a bit down, remember...

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down.
Without the rain, there would be no rainbow."
- G. K. Chesterton

I'll probably post my favorite Parade of Champions videos soon, but until then, lets focus on another type of parade...

The dance school where I teach participated in our town's annual Christmas parade this past weekend. The whole town came out to watch floats, marching bands, and of course, our dancers! The parade was a great time, with loads of Christmas lights, music, singing, and candy passed out to the kids...even Santa made an appearance!

We wore our school T-shirts [bright yellow this year!] with white long sleeved T's underneath [so the parade audience could see our arms in the darkness], black dance pants, and sneakers. Sparkly dance earrings and ponytails completed our school's parade look.

Parade by OnMyToesBlog featuring Nike athletic shoes

Unlike the Irish dance schools I danced for growing up [Shout-out to the Drake School! Great job at the Southern Regional Oireachtas!], my current dance school is not just for Irish dancers. We offer ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, modern, & IRISH dance classes. The parade is a great opportunity for all of our dancers to have fun performing together. We danced to a song called, "The Rhythm of Rejoicing" which was the perfect tune for for jazz, ballet, and Irish dancers to shine! Listen to it... you'll hear the part that sounds like a jig [we danced a single jig to this portion of the song = more single-jigging than I've done since middle school!], and you can probably tell which part the ballerinas waltzed to!

What does your dance school wear during a parade? Are you dancing in any Christmas or holiday parades this winter? 

Keep dancing,

Moira 

Old navy t shirt
oldnavy.gap.com

Victoria's Secret activewear pants
victoriassecret.com

Nike athletic shoes
finishline.com

Irish Dancing: Gangnam Style

I honestly have no words for how hilarious I find this parody of  "Gangnam Style" from the Drake School of Irish Dance...

Sometimes Irish dance is ALL about dresses and wigs and perfect feet and winning...and sometimes Irish dance is just about having way too much fun with your dance school and being seriously silly with your teachers! This video from the Drake School manages to combine it all.

Oh, and yes, this is my old dance school, and my fabulous TCRG, the one and only, Mr. Karl Drake. 

Drake's "Gangnam Style" parody definitely had this Drake alumna cracking up at her computer. What do you think of their take on Gangnam style? 

Keep dancing [and laughing!],

Moira