I have a feis-free weekend so I decided to write that blog post I have had on the back-burner.

When my daughter started competing, she danced against the same people over and over again, and we began to recognize the girls (and an occasional boy) from feis to feis and year to year, but had no idea what their names were. We started to ‘label’ the other dancers so we could identify them. None of them mean spirited, although I guess some may sound that way if you didn’t know the story behind them, they were just a way for us to be able to talk about things like ”nickname has really nice kicks” or “nickname got a new dress” or whatever, until we eventually learned the dancers real names.

I have been wondering about this topic for a while, thinking that we (my daughter and I) could not be the only ones that had nicknames for other dancers, and when another dance Mom recently told me one of the nicknames her and her daughter had, I figured I would just write this and see if this was common, or if the dance Mom and I were the only ones.

And what, you may ask were the nicknames and how did they come to be? Well…

Amazon – Early on, the girl child would dance against this extremely tall girl, literally a foot or more taller than the other girls and she gained the nickname ‘Amazon’ from the tall female warriors of Greek mythology. We have since met her and her parents and she is one of the nicest young ladies, so she has lost the moniker, but that is where it started for us.

Grumpy – there was this one girl who would NEVER smile on stage, but danced extremely well, besting the competition in most every event. It was almost like she danced because she was forced to, and she kept an Eeyore attitude throughout the competition. The fact she did so well but did not seem to enjoy any of it got her the nickname Grumpy.

Rachel from Akron – I know, not much of a nickname but Rachel isn’t from Akron. That is where we first met her and her family, so in a way, its a nickname.

Rootbeer – the dancers initials were AW so that one just kind of created itself.

Rachel from Michigan – I know, another one that is not so creative, but since we already had Rachel from Akron, we needed a way to tell them apart. Rachel from MI is indeed from MI.

Disco Ball – this is not so much about the dancer as it is her dress, which has SO many sequins, well, you get the idea.

So what about you? Any nicknames or stories you would like to share? Take our poll or add comments below.

NOTE: Please do not use dancers real names and note that all comments will be moderated. Thanks