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The Irish Dance Solo Dress
As you may well know the Irish dance solo dress is the by far the largest part of Irish dancing both financially and emotionally. Here I will show a few examples of modern solo dresses. They're all one of a kind creations, as individual as the dancers themselves.
The picture at right is my niece in her latest solo dress. (The back of this dress is shown in the next picture down.) This is one of the newer lightweight styles. This dress is the largest expense for an Irish dancer. It is a very intensive dress to make because of all the Celtic design embroidery, which I covered on the Irish dance dress page. Although much of the embroidery used now days on solo dresses is machine appliqué. Usually a dancer will need more than one solo dress throughout her career. The main reason being is they outgrow them. This goes without saying because Irish dancers usually start at a young age. The other reason they may need a new solo dress is a change in fashion from year to year. The cost of constantly replacing an Irish dance solo dress has caused many dancers to retire from dancing. It just gets too expensive to continue.
To help cut costs it is common to buy used solo dresses. You can sometimes find them locally through your school from other students or even from other local schools. An excellent online source is a web site called
Dance Again
. You not only can find used Irish dance dresses but almost everything else that has to do with Irish dancing, plus you can sell all your used Irish dance stuff too.
OK, I have to make a confession here. I’m a guy that knows nothing about fashion, as my wife could very well tell you. To me a change in fashion reminds me of a school of fish. They’ll all swimming along minding their own business when all of the sudden they all change direction, the same exact direction at the same exact time. They don’t know why they changed direction they just do. But pity the one fish that doesn’t change direction, they are eaten alive. OK then, that’s a guy’s take on fashion. That’s why I’ve recruited my sister to help with this page. She and her daughter and another niece are Irish dancers they know the ins and outs of this fashion thing.
The Irish dance solo dress above is the newer lightweight style. The solo dress below is an older style split-panel dress. The front of the dress is the left picture. The back of the dress has a soft cape pictured on the right. These solo dresses are not used in solo competition anymore, although they may still be used as school dresses that don’t change as much on the whims of fashion. It used to be the stiffer the dress, the better. The traditional design on this dress is taken directly from the illuminations drawn in ”The Book of Kells”.
Emotionally, wearing your own Irish dance solo dress is the ultimate feeling. After hours and hours of practice it means that you’ve reached a level of skill that lets you perform a solo routine. You don’t always have to dance as a class with other students. You now have the skill, the dress gives you the confidence and pride to perform your best, the idea being to place well at the Feis.
Some dancers get caught up in the world of competition. The goal is to do well locally, then nationally, with the ultimate goal to go to the World Competition. This can get very expensive with all the travel involved, not to mention the cost of the solo dress.
Other dancers, most I would say, are just out there to have some fun and learn a little bit about traditional Irish dancing. It’s a good way to learn about our ancestors traditions and its good exercise. Just go out and have some fun. If you do end up in the competitions I wish you good luck. Top of Irish dance solo dress page. Back to History of Irish Dance page.
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