Live action photo, first round, World Championships, London, 2014
Canandaigua, NY. After many years I realize I’m ‘inspiration dependent’. I need something to inspire me every day to get up and go. Having all the normal adult responsibilities just isn’t enough to move me and I’ve behaved irresponsibly towards myself and others in the past as a result. However, I’ve seen marked improvement since Irish Dance popped into my purview.
Irish Dance is very inspiring, but more to my point, it’s that one girl who dreamed and worked and danced her way into the competitive Irish dancing stratosphere. It’s her grit and determination, not to mention talent, that has me riveted to the cause. She is my inspiration, and forever will be.
I do hope she has all she needs to keep herself inspired. Lord knows it’s a lot of work in the freezing cold with the traipsing back and forth over miles of snowy highway to classes and lessons, and rehabilitating an injury besides, to be as ready as she can be to compete in the World Championships in Montreal in just a few weeks.
We have the picture above framed and hanging in our living room, a shining moment in time that crowns all our efforts as a family to date, not to mention Renee’s showing which propelled her to a world ranking. It never fails to bring back the rush of electricity and excitement that swirls ‘round in such rarefied air as you’ll find at the top of competitive Irish Dance, a place I could never have glimpsed or imagined even five years ago. I’m inspired each time I look at it.
Recently, I was piqued by some fatherly career advice given to actress, Tea Leoni, who recalled it in an interview, and I’m paraphrasing, “Don’t just do something because you’re good at it. Do the thing you’re passionate about and you’ll GET good.” I was thinking when I read it that here’s a thought that fairly sums up Renee’s Irish Dance journey,she being someone who always wants to do it all, was forced to realize that at some point, you have to choose, and she chose, essentially between gymnastics and dance, and it was a hard choice for her. That was some 5 or 6 years ago, but at long last, it seems pretty clear that she chose wisely, and she’s had the benefit of both regimens, with great teaching and coaching throughout.
It’s a great burden off a parent’s shoulders to know that a child of theirs can compete and excel in this world, and on that note, another quote, paraphrased as well, but very telling about all that Renee and the thousands of truly excellent Irish dancers who will come together at the World Championships know all too well. It was the much acclaimed, two-time World Champion, choreographer extraordinaire, Donna Griffin, who was assuring the Young School dancers 6 months ago that it wouldn’t be “baby steps” they’d be getting as the new dances they would learn for the next year’s competitions, and that if they expected to win, place or show they were “going to have to WORK”.
That’s pretty much the champions’ secret in a nutshell: do the work, get the guidance and do the work, every day, every day. And if you do it, then you must love it, so you’ll do it, every day, every day.
Look out Worlds and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all!
Keeping you posted.
Jim
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