Dancers ZOOMing through the Pandemic

Irish Dancing has a vast competition circuit which runs from local competitions to global championships. Dancers on the circuit often form strong bonds over the years at these competitions.

There are stories of dancers who formed friendships at the young age of 5 at a beginner competition and later became college roommates.  Or the two friends who went head to head in competitions that now are the best of friends on the professional show circuit. And, then there are the stories of friendships that have lasted decades which all began at a "feis" pronounced "fesh," which is an Irish word commonly used to refer to Irish Dance competitions. Competitive dance provides participants an outlet to form friendships that often last for decades. 

For dancers on the competition circuit, the pandemic may have temporarily sidelined seeing each other in person, but it certainly did not sideline the ability to keep friendships growing. Last summer, a group of 11 and 12 year old Champion dancers from nine schools on the East Coast of the USA launched a ZOOM group to keep up with each other's pandemic lives. From the beginning, ZOOM proved an important lifeline for their friendship.

Read more ...

Hayden Moon, a dancer at the Callanan Academy of Dance in Sydney, Australia, was instrumental in making changes in ensuring that every person involved in Irish Dance is treated with respect and dignity and protected from discrimination, harassment and abuse. This is his story.

From the very first dance class, Irish Dancers are taught to turn out, stay up on toes, and keep arms firmly at their sides. However, the style of dance between the male and female sections in competitive Irish Dance are vastly different.  

Most transgender dancers strive to compete with the gender they identify as and re-learning technique can be challenging. Dancer Hayden Moon originally competed in the women’s competition bracket but later moved to the male section. During this  process, Hayden felt discriminated against by some in the dance community. Today, he feels fully supported by the Callanan Academy but it was quite a complex process getting to this point in his dance career.  

Read more ...