Irish Dance Solo Dresses

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Here is daughter and one of her best friends at an Irish Dance competition at Gaelic Park in Chicago a few years ago.   They met in an Irish dance class when they were about 9 or 10 years old and have been friends ever  since.  

I wanted to show you some of the fantastic dresses Irish dancers wear when they compete on stage.  These are "solo dresses".  Each one is different.  Some are designed by the girls themselves.  These dresses have to be earned.  Girls have to advance to a certain level in competition before they are allowed to wear a solo dress.  Each girl will also have a school costume, which they wear for their first few years of dancing (before they qualify for a solo dress), and later for team dances when uniformity in look is important.

These pictures represent various styles of solo dresses from the past 10 years of Irish dance.  Note the different fabrics and styles as fads came and went in the competition world.

   

Have you picked out a favorite? Or two? Or three?

(Only two of the dresses above belonged to my daughter.   The others were owned by other dancers.  I found most of these pictures at the websites that sell new or used solo dresses.)

I am linking to Mary's Mosaic Monday.    And Cuisine Kathleen's St Patrick's Blog Crawl.