Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne
Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne is an annual Irish stepdance competition run by An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha. The Worlds include competitions for solo stepdance, organised by gender and age; and for certain traditional and original ceili dances, also divided by age group and team gender composition. Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne is the top competition of the hierarchical system operated by An Coimisiún, and dancers must qualify at major Irish stepdance events across the world in order to compete.
The first Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne was run in 1970, and the event is now one of six oireachtais under different organisations to be called the World Championships. Of these, Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, sometimes called the "Olympics of Irish dance", is the largest, attracting some 5,000 competitors and 25,000 spectators each year from over 30 countries. It has played a role in the globalisation of Irish stepdance and Irish dance generally, and, since the beginning of the 21st century, has been held in locations across the British Isles and in North America.
The Worlds traditionally run across Holy Week, and have at times extended to various cultural events outside of dancing.
History
Origins (1927–1969)
An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha was established between 1927 and 1930 by the Gaelic League, which had for some years beforehand been consolidating control over Irish dancing as a means of promoting the Irish nationalist movement. An Coimisiún's original stated objectives, laid down at the Congress of the Gaelic League in 1931, were to "protect and promote Irish dancing" and to "direct and control all Irish Dancing competitions throughout Ireland". Among the earliest events developed by the new organisation was Oireachtas Rince na hÉireann, which was first established as an independent event in 1929. It had previously been a component of the Gaelic League's annual Oireachtas cultural festival. A second major event, the Great Britain Championships, developed in the 1950s to meet increasing demand for Irish stepdance competitions in London and surrounds.The gradual transition of An Coimisiún from local to international governing body began in the early 1950s. With the advent of affordable air travel and improved communication links from the 1960s onward, increased contact with dancing teachers across the Irish diaspora led An Coimisiún to gradually become a global organisation. This transition included the first examinations for teachers and adjudicators to be held in the United States and Australia. The concept of a World Championships event was first discussed in 1967. In early 1968, An Coimisiún established Provincial Championships in Leinster, Munster and Connacht, complementing the existing championships in Ulster, as part of a scheme which envisaged both the All-Ireland and Great Britain Championships becoming open only to dancers living in Ireland and Great Britain respectively. This change, which mirrored a similar system being developed in Australia at the time, was hoped to eventually lead to dancers qualifying first for their national championships and then for a newly created World Championships.
At the same time, An Comhdháil na Múinteoirí le Rincí Gaelacha, a Dublin-based organisation with whom many of An Coimisiún's teachers had been associated since the early 1960s, began to increase its influence. This caused tensions within An Coimisiún, particularly because of a perceived over-representation of delegates from the Gaelic League. In December 1969, teachers were compelled to register with one organisation or the other, which led to many of An Coimisiún's registered teachers within Ireland leaving the organisation. This event, which would become known as "the split", eventually resulted in An Comhdháil establishing itself as an alternative governing body for Irish dance with its own system of registration, examinations and competition. The loss of nearly half of An Coimisiún's teachers seriously jeopardised its planned World Championships, but a majority of overseas teachers continued to support the event, and this enabled preparations to continue.
One long-term impact of the split prior to the first Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne was the eventual establishment of competing World Championship events. An Comhdháil increased its reach into the early 21st century, and in 2012 renamed its All-Ireland Championships the World Championships in order to compete with Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne. Further ructions within An Comhdhail had also resulted in the establishment of several other Irish dancing regulatory bodies, many of which themselves expanded into international markets. By 2017, Cumann Rince Dea Mheasa, the World Irish Dance Association, Cumann Rince Náisiúnta and Cumann Rince Gaelach were each hosting World Championship events, with varying levels of international participation. Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne remains the largest of the six events.
Early years (1970–1994)
The first Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne was eventually held in the Coláiste Mhuire Auditorium in Parnell Square, Dublin, on 1–3 May 1970, with five solo championships for men, five for women, three ceili championships and two "figure dance" championships. This event also included a number of "subsidiary" competitions not considered part of the Championships themselves; these were discontinued after the first year due to the popularity of the main event. The establishment of this event has been described as the most significant development in Irish stepdance during the history of An Coimisiún. It represented a fulfilment of An Coimisiún's goal to unite the Irish diaspora under a single, homogenous identity.The Championships were judged by a single panel of three adjudicators, who awarded only three placings in each event. Over the following years, the number of judges was increased and separate panels introduced in an effort to improve the quality of adjudication.
The early years of Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne saw little success for competitors from outside Ireland, despite the presence of a large contingent of North American dancers. This was due to a number of factors including the overseas competitors' style of dance, which was viewed as by the Irish as outdated, and differences in competition protocol between North America and Ireland. However, Michael Flatley, who became the first North American winner of the World Championships in 1975, recalled that his attempt to win at Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne focused on adopting a more rigid and conservative dance style that would be accepted by Irish adjudicators. Flatley had competed at Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne for the first time the year prior, and had placed fourth. The difficulty of competing successfully in Ireland was known to North American dancers as the "Emerald Barrier", and contributed to the development of an extensive system of competitions and championships on the North American continent. In 1971, the Irish Dancing Teachers' Association of North America chartered a Boeing 747 in an attempt to increase the number of North American competitors. In 1972, two entire Boeing 707s from Aer Lingus were booked to transport the North American contingent.
American teams experienced many of the same difficulties as solo dancers in succeeding during the early years of Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, although in some cases, the differences were more explicitly political. A North American dance drama team which had previously met with some success was placed last in the 1986 competition. Although the official reason for the decision was the inclusion of non-Irish music in the choreography, the team's teacher alleged to American media that the adjudicators had resented the dance's commentary on the Catholic Church. Conor Hayes became the first Australian to win a World Championship as late as 1996, and the inferiority of overseas competitors in the perception of adjudicators and Irish participants persisted into the early 21st century.
Even within Ireland, the Worlds were initially dominated by dance schools from Ulster, whose style had become well-known via television broadcasts in the late 1969s. However, following the commencement of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969, the competitive Irish dancing structure in the region rapidly disintegrated, and with it, the success of Ulster dancers.
From 1975 onwards, the national championships of Australia, North America, Ireland and Great Britain, which had until that point served as qualifying events for the Worlds, were supplemented by regional championships in each country – North America, for instance, was divided into seven regions, to increase the number of world qualifiers. The system of regional and national championships serving as qualifying events was eventually expanded globally.
Following complaints about the requirement that dancers qualify for the Championships, An Coimisiún decided to open the 1984 Worlds in Cork City to all dancers, with no qualification required. The subsequent massive influx of dancers necessitated the use of four separate venues in Cork over the course of 8 days, at the time the largest Irish dance event ever conducted. The large number of dancers in each section necessitated an extension to the usual three rounds of competition so that adjudicators had the opportunity to properly rank dancers. It was decided that due to the logistical complexities of such a large event, qualification would be reinstated for 1985.
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the gradual introduction of metronomes to regulate the tempo of accompanying music, as well as the introduction of a set number of bars for each dance. The length of each performance had previously been at the discretion of the judging panel, which had resulted in unfair disadvantage to competitors forced to dance for longer. The 1986 Worlds, held in Limerick, were the first to use computer technology for the tabulation of results.