rince leis an croí

General Info

General Walk Through (What to Expect)

Prelim | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve

Exam Syllabus (2021)

Céilí Info

This is a little walk through of my experience and what will happen when you go to take the exam. Remember, the specifics of each exam will be listed in other posts, I'll link that here.

The first time you take the exams, you might not know what to expect. I'll start with what it will be like for your first few exams and then get a little more specific for some of the later exams.

The process is far less formal than a feis. You should still be polite and professional, but you can talk with your examiner and others there.

Make sure you arrive early so you can warm yourself up (especially for later exams). Bring your shoes and a water bottle. If you are on any exam other than the first, bring your previous exam certificates AND marking sheets!

When it's time to go in, you'll walk into the room and they'll usually provide a place for you to sit. I find they generally go in alphabetical order? (Aka I've had to go first every single time xD.)

They'll likely talk to you about what their general plan of action is. Each examiner will have their own way they want to do things and I have done it multiple ways. But each dancer will dance one at a time.

Once I had an examiner do all the light shoes from all the exams, then all the hard shoes, then all the sets, then the Céilí's. Another time, we did each exam individually. Again, it will just depend on your examiner. They will give you the game plan, and don't be scared to ask for clarification!

Céilí: When you start having the Céilí included in your exams, it will be orally examed. I'll make a more in-depth post, but make sure you know the exact names of the movements in order and understand the fundamentals of how it moves. Typically the examiner will go down the line asking various questions about how to set up the dance, the order of the movements, and how to execute the movements. I've never had to dance any of them at an exam, but knowing how to dance it personally helps me memorize them better.

Modern (Non-Traditional) Sets: In total, you will have to know eleven separate sets, but you will only end up dancing 8. Truth be told, I did move around the rules a tiny bit, by using the same choreography with different music, but only for two dances in the last exam, which I didn't even end up dancing. For the TCRG, you will have to know and dance 9 set dances. Pro-tip: I noticed with my examiners and my friend noticed the same thing regarding hers for Grade 11 and 12. That is, that they picked the longest set dances we offered. If you're able, I would try to get the longest sets you know out of the way early on, but break it up in a way that makes sense for you! GRADE 11 & 12 ONLY: Since you submit a list of five sets for them to choose from, they will let you know at the beginning which dances you will do, and ask what speed you will require.

At the end, they will inform you whether you take home your certificate that day or not. The only time I did not take it home the same day was for Grade 11 & 12, as they have to go over your results and do some mailing around.

HOWEVER, I do agree with @behindthezenes  in that your mind is 1,000,000 times more powerful than you will ever realize!!!! The major take away from this post is not that you must DO more than everyone else, but rather the INTENSITY at which you do your dancing and cross training must gradually increase over time. 

The best way to increase your stamina is to run through your dances as many times as possible until failure. I would recommend doing this as much as possible during your training in the studio. If your teacher has the music playing and no one is running through their steps, jump in and take advantage of the time and critiques.

I use my workouts in the gym as secondary training to assist with the aforementioned dance practices. I usually focus on low impact stamina exercises to give me knees and ankles as much of a break as I can.

Here are some exercises you can do in the gym to increase stamina:

Incline Walking

For this one, I recommend doing about 30-60 minutes of walking on a treadmill. However, you do this at about a speed of 3.0-3.2 on an incline of about 12-13%. It may not seem like much of a workout on paper, but it does a wicked job. It works your stamina and help tone your legs.

Stepper Machine

I would recommend doing this until failure — but not to the point where your legs are going to give out as it is moving. 

Side Steps

Side steps are another great way to work on your stamina. I usually throw these into my leg day routines and do them until failure. I would recommend having some music while doing these since they can get a bit repetitive at times.

Personally, I think these are a great exercise to do since we can do them on the road or at home. 

Weighted Box Walk Ups

You get the best of both worlds with these exercise — cardio and legs. You choose the height of the step and the weight being used. I usually do these with dumb bells onto a bench or a box jump.

These are just some of the exercises that I do. I’m not a trainer, but I find that doing some research online is a great tool when it comes to finding ways to increase stamina or find harder exercises.

As I mentioned earlier, I would highly recommend you do this alongside stamina training in the studio. While these are great secondary exercises, I have never found anything that works my stamina as well as dance has!

I hope this answered your question!

When it’s a drab cold winter day, you chase away the winter blues with dance! 😊

The Winter Blues Dancer ft. Julia O'Rourke for Rince & Repeat’s ‪#‎WhereWeDance‬.

My photo series Where We Dance is all about celebrating the fact that as dancers we never stop dancing, no matter where we are or what we are doing! Dance is life!