Hey, and welcome to watchmojo.com I am your host Devon, and today we are here to give you an introduction to Irish dancing. The worldwide success of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance has placed Irish dancing on the international stage. The history of Irish dancing is vague, however it can be dated back to the Jews and the early in 400 A.D.

Jumped forward to the 16th century we see talk of Irish jigs dancing all the way, and then later in the 18th century we see the first appearance of the Irish dance master. Basically he was a wondering dance teacher, who went from village to village and taught peasants how to Irish dance. He would basically choreograph his own routines basically reels and jigs, and for those who are perhaps less skilled, he would get them to do group dances, which are called céilí dances, that way they could still enjoy Irish dancing, but perhaps wouldn't really want to dance alone.

Irish dancing today is primarily seen in competitions, and public performances. A competition in Irish dancing is called the Feis, which in Irish means a festival. The dance competition is usually divided by age, and then by expertise. So you can have anywhere from under 5 to under 21, and over 21 and then that's also divided by your expertise. So you'd have your beginners, your advanced beginners, your novice dancers, your prize winner, your open, your preliminary championship, and then your open championship which is the highest level of Irish dancing.

From there you can also qualify to go an Oireachtas. Well an Oireachtas is a competition where you'd qualify to go to the world championship. First of all you need to qualify to go an Oireachtas, which means you have to reach to a certain level of Irish dancing. Usually an open dancer, a preliminary dancer, or an open championship dancer would perform at these competitions. Another way that you can qualify to go the world champions, which have been performed since 1970 is by going to a nationals.