Latest News

WIDA worlds 2025 announcement - 06/07/2024

2025 World Championship Information is available at the page: https://irish.dance/widaworlds

WIDA ANNOUNCEMENT- 09/02/2024

Website updates to apply with immediate effect:

Syllabus update - Local Feis -> treble reel

Competition rules -> update to rule 10.2

AFFILIATION FEE REMINDER

As a reminder, annual affiliation fees are due by 1st December. Teachers who have not paid the affiliation fee by then will have their details removed from the website.

The fee is €150. You can pay through your teacher account in Go Feis - click the reminder link to pay your affiliation fee. No admin fee is payable.

WIDA ANNOUNCEMENT- 29/12/2023

Rules no. 5.3, 5.4, 14.1, 15.1 have been updated with immediate effect from 1th Jan 2024. All dancers, teachers and adjudicators should familiarise themselves with the rules.

Worlds 2024 days schedule

Wednesday, April 3 - Grade feis

Thursday, April 4 - Team Day and Traditional Set Championship.

Friday, April 5 - International Championships & World Championships (age groups TBC)

Saturday, April 6 - rest of World Championships

Live ADCRG Training - Dublin, 03/09/23.

We will be holding an ADCRG training session at the Carlton Hotel at Dublin Airport on Sunday 3rd September 2023. Entries must be done via the Exam & Seminar Registration section of the website and will be capped at 40 attendees. The training session will be followed up by a series of regional & online sessions (comms coming to dates as soon as they are confirmed). Eligibility criteria for the session are as follows (to be eligible to attend, you must meet all criteria - exceptions will only be made in special circumstances at the discretion of the WIDA Examinations & Continuing Education Committee, for example in developing regions):

- WIDA affiliate, who has paid affiliation fee in the corresponding year

- Fully qualified teacher (ie successfully completed either grade 11 or TCRG & TMRF exams) for at least 2 years.

- At least 23 years old on training date to embark on the ADCRG training programme, at least 25 years old to become a qualified ADCRG

To remain qualified, ADCRGs must repeat training every 4 years (ie the period between training sessions should not exceed 4 years. Due to Covid, this means that all ADCRGs require retraining in 2023-2024.)

Eligibility criteria for new ADCRGs has been updated on the website.

2024 TCRG/TMRF/Grade 8-11 exams

Our venue for the 2024 TCRG/TMRF/Grade 8-11 exams for Western Europe is confirmed in London.

Exams will be held on 18th-19th May 2024 at Lingfield College, St Piers Lane, Lingfield, RH7 6PH. It is approximately a 15 minute drive from London Gatwick airport and a short footpath away from Lingfield station (connections to London Luton airport, Brighton and central London - Clapham Junction, Victoria, London Bridge).

The venue is opposite the Lingfield Park Marriott Hotel (book before the Lingfield Races schedules are announced!), otherwise there are a number of hotels between the venue and Gatwick (search Felbridge and Copthorne areas).

Entries are now open on the website. Deadline is 28/02/24.

Please note: as always we advise booking travel so that you are available for both full days. As a guide, we tend to do parts 1 & 2 on Day 1 and parts 3 & 4 on day 2 - but this always depends on the numbers of each part entered. Depending on entries, it is not always possible to take individual travel plans into account when timetabling.

Wida announcement- 05/01/2023

Rules no. 3.1, 7.9 and 11.10 have been updated with immediate effect from 5th Jan 2023.

Qualifying for the world and international championships

Our 2023 event will be held in Killarney on the 13th-16th April 2023. Follow our event page on Facebook to stay up to date.

Dancers should qualify at their local Oireachtas event where possible. If you are unable to attend your local event you can qualify at any other Oireachtas event, including the digital Oireachtas.

With the addition of the digital Oireachtas to our calendar, areas without a live Oireachtas should qualify via the digital Oireachtas. This supersedes the previous exemption rule for remote areas.

As an example, a dancer in Mexico that would usually be exempt from qualifying should qualify via the Digital Oireachtas. For 2022 this is the Australasian Digital Oireachtas.

Wida announcement- 06/04/2022

A defining characteristic of WIDA is it's friendly and welcoming culture which can be experienced at any WIDA event. Competition is limited to the dance floor, while off the stage every dancer, parent and teacher shares a love for Irish dance.

The World Irish Dance Association was created as a non-political, neutral organisation to promote Irish Dancing which aims to welcome people of all ages from all corners of the globe.

WIDA will continue to offer financial support to our Ukrainian teachers which will be raised at our annual Treble Reel competition and also by raising awareness of the donation address which goes directly to WIDA affiliates in Ukraine. Teachers and dancers of WIDA will also continue to offer support to the affiliates of Ukraine in whatever capacity they can.

Wida Announcement

As of May 31st 2020 Elaine Walker will have completed her term in office as Interim President of WIDA and will be stepping down from the role.

She leaves the position with our heartfelt thanks for assuming the presidency in April 2016 at a difficult time and continuing to lead the organisation as a fantastic ambassador for Irish dance and WIDA.

A new structure will be established over the summer months to reflect the changing direction and focus of WIDA as we move forward, and an announcement will be made at the appropriate time as to who will be the president for the immediate future.

We are sure you will all join WIDA in thanking Elaine for her sterling efforts over the past four years and we are sure she will enjoy her freedom from the pressures of being the focus of so many questions and discussions about the rules and personalities of the WIDA family.