When we book Irish dancers, admittedly not super young but late teens, we tend to book some that do not have the outrageous costumes. Subtle is a lot more hip and I think more accessible to audiences outside of the competitions.
As for young kids in make-up, that's always weird isn't it, pageants or dancing , urg, lots of make up is used to make you look sexy, not a quality that parents should be trying to encourage in there 6 year olds! It's really odd!
Music for display dancing in the UK is often the more over-mixed River-dance stuff on a CD, less subtle than the 'thrashy' guitar that I incidently love. (If we are talking J.D. style.) Funny how people hear different stuff in the music. Doesn't sound monotonous to meeee! Also in similar 'thrashy' style backing this Great Scoootish fiddlerwahooo, it's awesome