Interesting discussion developing here. Very civil, as well, which is a pleasant change.

I just picked our daughter up from her Irish Dancing class. I did notice they were trying on a wig on one of the girls for a feis - I don't think the teacher was happy about it but she said something about 'having to play the game'. The clearly wasn't keen on it but I think she was being pragmatic in this case so clearly there are some competitions where these are expected. I suspect that they vary, depending on which school is hosting the feis and who is judging.

Mind you, what do I know? I'm just a dad.

Caitlin, I love the idea of a mass refusal to toe the line by parents but you'll know yourself that when parents turn up to a feis the last thing on their mind is a show of solidarity. I guess that's the problem with competitions. It happens with fleadhanna as well.

But at least at a fleadh you see different kids playing together outside of competitions. That sort of spontaneous, non-competitive activity doesn't seem to figure on the dancing circuit.

I think the good teachers (like my daughter's) are really up against it - not only do they have to work within the system but they have to manage the expectations of kids and parents. Something I have sympathy with from running music lessons.

Bonnie, I think you are absolutely spot-on about the importance of musicians learning to play for dancers. When I first started accompanying Irish music on the guitar I played at an Irish club right after a set dancing lesson. The dancers would hang around and dance during the session so I started playing for dancers from the word go. It was something I've always been grateful for - most guitarists seem to get into Irish music either through pub sessions or through folk clubs. Nothing wrong with that but I feel they are often missing something coming from that direction.

I also feel that the prevailing DADGAD style of guitar playing you hear everywhere now in Irish music tends not to be best suited to dancing as it tends to impose an incongruous rhythm on the tunes - but that's just my opinion.