The 2010 Oireachtas is the Western Canadian Qualifier for both the 2011 World Championships and the 2011 North American Championships. This post is a repeat of my October 26/09 post, to explain to first-time Oireachtas dancers and parents how the qualifying spots for the 2011 North American Championships are determined. The 2011 North American Championships ("NAN's") will take place in Nashville, July 1-5 2011.
At the Oireachtas next weekend, all dancers in each age group will do their Hard Shoe dance and their Soft Shoe dance. The top 50% in each group will be "recalled". Recalled dancers will be announced, and will return to the stage to do their Set Dance. All recalled dancers will "place" at the evening awards ceremony. All dancers who did not get a recall will not dance their Set Dance, and will not receive an award.
The formula for determining whether you have qualified for the North American Championships is as follows: In each age group, the top 10 dancers + 25% of all dancers in the group will qualify for the North American Championships (so long as those 25% were within the recall group). This usually - but not always - works out to be all recalled dancers. Examples:
A/ 40 dancers in the group = 20 will recall (top 50%). NAN's qualifiers: Top 10 recallers + 25% (25% of 40 dancers = 10 dancers). Therefore, the top 10 + the next 10 = 20 dancers. All 20 recallers are qualified to compete at the NAN's.
B/ 52 dancers in the group = 26 will recall (top 50%). NAN's qualifiers: Top 10 recallers + 25% (25% of 52 dancers = 13 dancers). Therefore, the top 10 + the next 13 dancers = 23 dancers. Thus although 26 dancers recalled in this group, only the top 23 are qualified for NAN's. Dancers in 24th, 25th and 26th place are not qualified.
Exceptions: If a particular age group has 10 or less dancers, the Adjudicators will normally recall all of them rather than only 50%. (This normally means all the Boys/Mens groups). As well, in the Pre-Oireachtas group, the Adjudicators sometimes (but not always) recall more than 50%, depending on the size of the group. For example, in 2008 there were 16 Pre-Oireachtas competitors and 10 were recalled; however, last year there were 38 Pre-Oireachtas competitors and 19 (50%) were recalled.
Other notes:
- All Open Championship dancers are automatically qualified for NAN's. This includes Open dancers who do not compete at the Oireachtas, or who may have competed at the Oireachtas but not recalled.
- Recall calculations are based on the number of dancers who actually danced that day, not the number of dancers listed in the program! (There are always a few "no-shows"). Good luck qualifying for the 2011 North American Championships!
Here are a few of Cheryl G's photos from the mini-feis yesterday. Thank you Cheryl! Check back later today; I will be posting more Oireachtas photos. Oireachtas parents and dancers: if you purchased any "action" photos from OnSight, the professional photographers, please scan them at high resolution and e-mail them to me for the blog. Thanks!
