When an Irish Dance Correction Feels Hard, That’s a Good Sign

There’s one sentence every Irish dancer hears from me in my Correction Clinic, and it’s this: “If it’s not hard, tell me.”

I’ll give a dancer an exercise for their toe height, and every so often they’ll look up and tell me it was fine. That tells me SO much. When something feels easy, we’re almost always working the part of the body that’s already doing its job, and the thing that’s really holding the correction back hasn’t been touched yet.

So when it feels hard, that’s usually the moment I know we’ve found it...

The What: a correction is a symptom

When a teacher says “get up on your toes”, that’s the What. It matters so much, because it tells your dancer exactly what the teacher and the judges can see. But toe height isn’t one problem. 

In my Correction Clinic I see at least three different reasons behind it: the big toe, balance, or the mobility in the ankle. Two dancers can come in with exactly the same correction and need completely different work to change it.

The Why: why drilling it doesn’t always work

A dancer said something to me in my Correction Clinic that I hear in different ways all the time: “I drill it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

That’s what working on a correction without the Why looks like. The dancer is putting in the effort, practising at home and doing the extra drills and work. Some days it comes together and some days it doesn’t, because the reason underneath it is still there.

Think about going to the doctor with a sore throat. If the doctor handed you something to soothe it every single time, without ever looking for what was causing it, you’d feel better for a day and be back in the waiting room the next week. A good doctor finds the Why first, and only then tells you the How. That’s what I do as an Irish dance movement doctor. Your teacher gives you the What, and I help you find the Why and the How.

Take the big toe. If it won’t bend the way it needs to, the foot has to find that range somewhere else. Your dancer can practise pointing as hard as they like, but until the big toe is doing its job, the foot will keep finding a way around it.

That’s why the right exercise feels hard. It’s asking the weak link to finally do the work.

The How: what to do with it

Here’s how I’d use it...

See it to believe it. Film it. I was SO sure my arms were in until I saw the video. Seeing it is the only way to know whether the work is changing anything.

Do less, but do it consistently. We don’t need to be doing loads. A few minutes of the right exercise most days will do more than an hour of everything.

If it’s not hard, tell me. That goes for your teacher, your coach and me. If an exercise feels easy, that’s useful information, and it isn’t a reason to do more of it.

Decide how you’ll know it’s working before you start. Take a photo of the Day 1 point, or a video from the side, so you can SEE the difference rather than guess at it.

If your dancer is competing soon

If your dancer is dancing at a major soon, like the Great Britains this weekend, the hard work belongs in the practice room. In the last few days, park any big or new correction and let them rely on their preparation, so they walk on stage thinking about their dancing and not about fixing something. Once the competition’s done, that’s the right time to find the one thing to work on next.

For parents

If you’ve watched your dancer work SO hard on a correction that just won’t change, it isn’t because they aren’t trying. Most of the time they’re working hard on the wrong part of the problem. Once they find the right part, all that effort finally has somewhere to go.

I talk about all of this on the latest Meg Talks episode, If It’s Not Hard, Tell Me, if you’d like something to listen to on the drive to class.

And if you’d like to find your dancer’s one thing, my free quiz takes two minutes. It finds the correction that’s really holding your dancer back, and then I’ll walk you through a free 5-day challenge so you understand the Why behind it 💚

👉 Take my free quiz