Hi, I’m Julia and this is my website. I was born / lived in New Mexico for about 10 years and I love to dance, to be more specific I love Irish Dance. I’m part of a team called McTeggart now (Unfortunately Celtic Steps in New Mexico closed the gates so it was time to look for a different Irish dance school in NM. If you live in AZ you can still attend there to Celtic Steps).
Just a few words about McTeggart (here is the address if interested: 10410 Comanche Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111). We have performances and also competitions where we compete against other teams, could be from the same city, same state or other states.
Some general information.
For our dances, we use 2 types of shoes:
Soft shoes called Gillies or pumps and hard shoes. Hard shoes are similar to tap shoes, except that the tips and heels are made of fiberglass, instead of metal, and are significantly bulkier.
The dance competition is referred to as a feis (pronounced “fesh”) which means “festival” in Irish.
The dress for competitions in the past was simply “Sunday best” (clothes one would wear to church). Irish Dance schools generally have school dresses, worn by lower-level competitors and in public performances. As dancers advance in competition or are given starring roles in public performances, they may get a solo dress of their own design and colors or wear the team dress. Solo dresses are unique to each dancer. Today most women and girls wear a wig, a bun, or hairpiece for a competition, but some still curl their own hair. Costumes are heavily integrated into the Irish dance culture and feature traditional elements of classic peasant wear adorned with Celtic designs. For more information about costumes, competitions…. you can find here.
What can I say, is a lot of work, we have fun but all this doesn’t come cheap. Starting with the classes, the shoes, dresses, trips for the competitions it adds up.
Please visit our store you may find something you like also any donation will be deeply appreciated.