Sean Kilkenny TCRG, one of the most active Irish dancing teachers in Mainland Europe, and founder of the Kilkenny School of Irish Dancing, organised a weekend of Irish dancing grade examinations. Grade Examinations were first introduced by An Coimisiún in 1943 and have since been conducted in Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and since a few years also in Mainland Europe. The Grade Exams are designed to evaluate a dancer's strengths and weaknesses, and to help the individual dancers improve. Each dancer will dance in front of the examiner for up to 40 bars. When he passes the exam for a particular grade, he receives an official diploma as shown here on the left (For the sake of clarity: I post-edited the diploma, replacing my real name by my pseudonym. I can't make it too easy for you to find out my real name, can I ?).

Examiner for this event was Mollie Farrelly ADCRG from Dublin, by whom Sean prepared for his TCRG, and who has been dancing teacher of Mary Murray Sweeney TCRG who runs Rince Tir na Nog in Kaiserslautern.

This was my first Irish dancing exam ever. Because there are not that many events organised, I desided to try to pass 4 grades in one session. Here are the results. The sound samples that I provide on this page are just examples, and not the music that was actually used during the exam.

1st Grade (overall score: A- = 86-90% = excellent)

The basic reel (mp3 sample from Leahy's Jenny's chickens and the Glasgow reel) went reasonably well. I got excellence for timing and rhythm (being a musician really helps to dance good, and the other way round as well), carriage and general effect (i.e. does the dancing look nice), and very good for execution. The main problem appeared to be not enough control in the ankle of - primarily - the left foot and insufficient arching. This is known to be a common problem in men as opposed to women, but that's rather an explanation than an excuse: hard work is needed there. It would follow me through all grades. Also more attention should be given to the back foot that wasn't always pointing outwards.
We had an interesting discussion about an unallowed little fourth step that I introduced after the last 1-2-3 of the side step (ending left foot in front) to start the 1st step with hopping on the left foot. That was absolutely forbidden in reels, while it is common practice in jigs. She noticed me doing it, since she had learned the first step that I performed years ago to Mary Sweeney and she was wondering whether I had learned it from Mary. Now that wasn't the case, but I do remember that during a workshop with Tereza Bernardova, she told me (at least, that's what I understood from her explanation) to put in that little step to make it easier. I have to ask her next time I see her again.

The light (double) jig (for a good explanation on the difference between double jig and single jig, see Alan Ng's Irish Rhythm definitions, or feel free to add to the confusion related to hop jigs. To be honoust, I don't have the right answer myself. Here is Boys of the Town, available on Flute Site as an example.) was judged to be very good, what pleased me a lot since it isn't really my piece of cake.

2nd Grade (overall score: B+ = 81-85% = very good)

This is an entire jig-grade, so I expected this to be tricky. I felt a little more comfortable with the slip jig (Foxhunters') than the single jig (Road to Lisdoonvarna), an appreciation that was somewhat shared by the examiner: on all aspects except for execution for which I received B+ and B (= 76-80, the lowest score during my entire exam) respectively, I received the same scores. Major problem was again the lack of ankle control, that in these type of jigs, during which the feet are allmost constantly up in the air, is very difficult to hide.

3rd Grade (overall score: A- = 86-90% = excellent)

This grade is the first one for the Primary level in Irish dancing. I got a B+ for the primary reel (Cooley's Reel. Here is a video (wmv) of how I performed that dance in February 2004 after a workshop with Fidelma Nolan TCRG. The examiner's remarks were similar as before. There was an additional comment on my cuts being to wild: they should be more controlled.
Then came the treble jig, a dance that suits me fine, and it wasn't a surprise that I got A-. I danced the same steps as in the Halsteren competition, March 2004 with which I won the 1st prize. Mollie noticed however that I missed regularly the second beat in fast trebles with my left foot. Again something to work on.

4th Grade (overall score: B+ = 81-85% = very good)

In the beginning, I wasn't sure to take also this grade, but the comments recieved so far encouraged me to take my chance. I wasn't afraid for Saint Patrick's Day, but more for the primary slip jig. During the competition, I finished 4th for the set dance, but didn't classify at all for the slip jig and I had noticed that the adjudicator didn't pay attention to me anymore after the lead around. An ominous behaviour that I had interpreted very well. But luckily, it worked out fine for the exam, "throwing" of the foot still being the major problem.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, the exam turned out to be a nice experience, and I will not forget the examiner's words "look how far you got in such a short time" when we were discussing the problems of Irish dancing when starting at my age, and her advice to start thinking about the assessment exam for future teachers. Well, thinking about it, I'll do, but taking it, I prefer to wait at least a year. I must first stop "throwing" my feet. Imagine I would loose one ...
Many thanks to Mollie for the advice and to Sean for organising this.