An Irish Dance still life.

An Irish Dance still life.

Canandaigua, NY. It’ll be a quieter Thanksgiving than we had planned this year– for better or for worse, as Renee is now well on rehabilitating a knee injury, but as yet, unable to dance and compete. Disappointing as it was being out of our annual Mid-Atlantic Region Oireachtas in Philadelphia, she’s been remarkably composed and philosophical about the whole experience. Having a top 10 finish in the North American Championships in July certainly put her among the favorites at this year’s regional qualifier.

The good news is that the knee is healing, the MRI indicating no damage requiring surgery or much further babying. Physical therapy has been running on course and on target for a good month and she can cut back to a single session each week now instead of two. We elected an aggressive treatment plan and were pleased to find dance specialized physical therapists through the University of Rochester Sports Medicine group. The further good news is that Renee had qualified for World Championships at the Nationals in July and can be excused from participation in the Oireachtas, which of course, we are sorry to miss.

So, now, we look ahead hopefully, to Worlds, 2015, in Montreal. When Renee can resume dancing we’ll assess the knee, take another deep breath and decide, is Worlds our goal?

Life comes at you rapidly when you’re a competitive athlete, the demands of your sport, to always to be conditioned and ready for competition. Irish Dance has three major events to prepare for spaced throughout the year – March-July-November—which means intensive training year round for Champion level dancers. With regular competitions staged throughout a dancer’s region, not to mention the world-over, competing twenty times or more during the year is not uncommon – in addition to going to school and having a life.

It would not be the first time we’ve gone limping in to a major competition. Irish dance horror stories abound. Needless to say, training for World Championships is rigorous, not for the faint of heart or for those of uncertain intentions – or injuries. With each passing year, Renee has shown amazing dedication to every class, every event, every physical and emotional challenge she’s been faced with. I sometimes wondered how and why she was able to persevere, but she always showed her inspiration, her desire, the burn she’s  had to perform and to be a champion dancer from the very beginning.

In looking to take her abilities a step further, and in an effort to perfect new and more complex choreography, this year, Renee could set a training schedule free to re-delegate the hours she spent in school last year. The hard work in the dance studio, plus lessons, plus the coaching job at the gymnastics center she had just obtained, easily filled those hours. The pace of the day quickly became as exacting as the school bell had been, many days to include nights.

Basically, her job was to dance, and we also began looking for opportunities for professional work, producing quite a nice CV (curriculum vitae) I thought, thanks to her mother’s intensive efforts, and also to the fine work of a family friend, a good photographer and graphic artist.

Endurance training was a major part of Renee’s regimen for September and October. At this time of the year it’s harder than before Nationals because her steps are new and her unfamiliarity with parts of the dances always threatens flow, sapping energy quickly. It was brutal some days, but she was nevertheless, making good progress, looking very strong.

It was a Wednesday afternoon during her lesson, and while performing a butt-kicking (literally) movement with her left leg, there was a funny snap of the knee. It halted her for a moment, but it didn’t hurt, so the lesson continued. When she got home, she danced a while longer.

Not realizing that she had dislocated her knee cap hours earlier. The pain and swelling later that evening was a bit shocking to us all. We made an orthopedics appointment the next day.

The speed of the life coming at you can result in quite a crash when there arises a crucial imbalance. Whoa, boy! In this case, her quadriceps, the big thigh muscles, simply overwhelmed her knee stabilizers in a movement she’s done a million times.

Why? Why now? Well, factors known, and lots of new unknowns, did add up. Renee’s long-time gymnastics coach mentioned that perhaps she’d been slacking off on her toe raises. Renee confessed that perhaps she had. We live and learn that maintaining focus to include the simplest things is what champions must do — big picture, many details.

The Irish dancer’s nightmare is a misstep, falling out of time and having to catch up with the music. The steps are so quick. How to artfully cheat a beat and somehow, in a split second, find a way back into the flow? Sometimes you’re lucky. I think that this time, Renee was pretty lucky. She can go on as she chooses.

She’s anxious to dance as you might imagine. Will she find her way back into her “pre-knee” groove or perhaps, find a new spark?

Keep you posted.

Jim

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Now Graduated?

Canandaigua Academy Graduation Ceremonies

Canandaigua, NY. Congratulations did abound following the early afternoon swelter of an award-filled graduation ceremony. As the class of 2014 scattered, Cherisse and I noticed a hint of anti-climax. I think we thought this would be a much headier event for us. It seemed to be a much bigger day for everyone else. We were happy and proud, of course, but a little jaded, perhaps?

It was a little confusing at first because we really didn’t have a lot going for our graduate. Fortunately, there were several parties being thrown by parents much better prepared than we were for this big of a day. Later, over early dinner (sans graduation-partying Renee), we concluded that today was just another in a long series of graduations in Renee’s career thus far. Plus, we needed to get her packed up and out the door to Montreal for North American National Championships (NANS) in just 4 days. This would be yet another graduation.

Loosening the definition of terms a bit, we had always considered our annual sojourns to Renee’s major competitions, Nationals, the Oireachtas regional qualifier and World Championships, during the last four years as like graduations. Preparing sufficiently and testing successfully, you may cross the stage to be awarded and designated as one among the best. You can flunk out too. For these young people, these are all big and true tests requiring grueling preparation, laser focus and travel. Don’t forget travel.

This year for the first time, we’ll send the girl off on her own to compete on the Nationals stage. That’s right, no mother to fuss over bun wigs and make-up, no father to tape shoes and run for water. She’ll be in the company of her wonderful teachers and friends of 10 years, so never a worry about her care and readiness. We’ll try to track her progress and results via facebook, since our cell phones won’t cross the Canadian border, and since we can’t quite figure that out, we’re a little less convinced we’ll figure out facebook, so we’re hoping to receive news via currier.

In any case, the point is, she’s on her own for this one, which probably represents more trepidation for Cherisse and I than for Renee at this point. If she can qualify for World Championships at Nationals as she’s done for the past 2 years, that’s the goal, and we joke about how this year she’ll conquer the podium and we won’t be there.

The overall point of the post is that we have had so many uproarious “graduation” celebrations thanks to Irish Dance that marking the official completion of four years of secondary education did rather pale in comparison. I knew that one day I’d be watching Renee cross a stage and receive a diploma so that adult life could sort of officially begin, I didn’t know she would have the equivalent of a college education already under her belt by then — which is good, because we sunk a lot of money into it.

Currently we’re talking a lot about her post-secondary academic potential, but technically we’re a year behind her classmates entering colleges this year. In August Renee will skip college to make her professional debut and turn 18 — lots of potential there.

I think a dream is not a thing captured, but something each of us holds, that slowly unfolds.

Keeping you posted.

 

Jim

A NEW WORLD VIEW

Round 1, Heavy Jig.

Canandaigua, NY – So much brilliance, so much drama, so many dancers, so few winners, so this is what it’s all about. We’ve had a month and a half to unwind from the London World Championships adventure. Things do look different from here.

I think back on London and last year in Boston and the world of difference between Renee’s outcomes in those two World Championship events, and how achieving a world ranking this year places her among her peers. It is perhaps, the most sought after level of success in Irish Dance, partly because the chances of becoming the World Champion are so slim for most of the field.

I think about the 94 dancers in Renee’s competition that were unceremoniously eliminated after two rounds, and would have no chance at a ranking this year. Well, maybe next year. That’s what we were saying a year ago. Not recalling at Worlds is a pretty hard pill to swallow after fighting your way into World contention. Credit Irish dancing for commanding dedication as thousands are called each year, but alas, few are chosen.

Of course, it’s not a lottery, it’s about getting on the floor and making it happen, performing under pressure, when it’s all on the line. It’s a life lesson, a wake-up call. When you don’t recall, and competition is all over for you, you can say that just getting here was a great accomplishment, and that’s true, it’s just not much comfort.

Happily for us, this year is different. Renee achieved her world ranking. Even so, we think, gee, we could do better, and we could. Even the World Champion can say, I’ll repeat my feat next year, watch and see. I can tell you, it won’t be easy for her.

Now with a new season under way, we have the benefit of added experience. We have a view of the World stage we didn’t have before, and a new mission that begins with North American Nationals in Montreal next month. It’s the first chance to qualify to compete next year at World Championships and be recognized once again as one of the very best.

For Renee, as with so many of her contemporaries in Irish Dance, it’s high school graduation time, as well. As she, and we, anticipate the change of venue, and the move on to the much bigger stages of life, her mother and I are  thankful for her timely rise in the ranks this year. From now on, the girl has charge of her own career, and we can say we have her well prepared and positioned for her future.

As I write tonight, she is enjoying her Senior Prom and time away from training to just be a regular kid with her best friends. We would forgo a feis (competition) so the day could be completely set apart from Irish dance, and it was. Tomorrow, however, she’s due for a 3 hour dance class at 11:30.

Oh, well.

I’ll keep you posted.

Jim

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The sacred altar of Irish Dancing, London, 2014.

Canandaigua, NY. It was my dear wife who spontaneously coined it, “the altar”. The few of us chatting together and waiting the painfully long time for the results of Renee’s competition did agree. We were all here to give thanks and praise for Irish Dancing at this year’s Irish dance Mecca, the Metropole Hilton, London, UK. It’s Holy Week, April 17^th, 2014.

We summoned up the last of our energy for the show of enthusiasm due these amazing dancers; for the phenomenal day of competitive dancing which now stretched to nearly 14 hours. We hoped that soon the judges’ tallies would be displayed up on the large video screens above us and we’d know who this year’s Ladies 17 to 18 World Champion would be. Probably more important to Cherisse and I, what would be Renee’s ranking be here among the world’s best? The thrill of actually having this opportunity is as yet, unparalleled in my life, and in the moment I can barely grasp it.

The ball room continues steadily filling with expectant family and friends and it feels to me like a huge family reunion. Many of us reflect on the day’s remarkable competition. Conditions were excellent for the dancers, I thought, and there were so many strong performances in rounds 1 and 2. Only 50 of the original 144 17 to 18 year old ladies had been recalled to dance in round 3. All that was left to do now was to rank them. This would be done by a very distinguished 7 judge panel. How they were able to eliminate 94 of these, the best dancers from 10 countries, I can only imagine because it’s done by numbers; not my forte.

World Championships competitive rankings are a judged affair, and that’s a real key in Irish Dance. I think of it as an art that’s competitive, but more like entering your painting for exhibition in a juried art show. It kind of comes down to what the judges like, as well as how accomplished an artist, or dancer, has become. Still, each of the 7 judges on the panel watching the day’s competition are knowledgeable well beyond the average spectator. To be sure, through the years a lot of consideration has been given to the judging procedures by An Coimisiun, the world governing body, to make things as fair as possible, because it could easily be a popularity contest.

Countering any attempt to reduce Irish dancing to mere popularity, you’ve got to hand it to the dancers and their teachers. They have individually, and together, assembled the most incredible, virtual non-stop, day-long show. Where the shoe meets the floor, that’s where the proof is undeniable. Irish dancing is not only a display of competitive skill, it’s an extreme sport. 40 measures of music clicking along, you dance, you bow, it’s a blur and “ding!” you’re done. Next!

Those few moments on stage have to be perfect. How do you achieve that? Lonely hours of stretching, drilling, sprinting through your dances, over and over; constantly having to correct the same little mistakes until you finally stop making them, then making your left foot leads look as strong as your right foot leads, perfectly in time, missing nary a beat, while keeping your posture arrow straight, your arms tucked neatly at your side. Also, make sure you’re exquisitely made up, wigged, bejeweled, dressed to the nines and perfectly tanned, thank you very much, and oh, make it all look completely effortless.

If all that happens at precisely the right moments, you have three chances to make your mark in the rankings and one competitor’s marks will crown them World Champion until next year when they’ll have to prove it all over again, or not. So, it’s only right that a total fuss is made over these dancers who recall at Worlds. It’s no accident they’re standing here at the awards ceremony.

As the results were displayed score by score, there came a number of surprising and varying official opinions about who this year’s champion would eventually be, and there was not a drop less drama than the room could contain when those final numbers were read out. It’s a very graphic representation of your standing based on your performance that immediately begins to settle out of the scores 1 to 100. In those moments, being at the top can still feel just like being at the bottom; when a half point can separate one place and the next. I believe there was a tie for 15^th. Renee claimed 37th place.

Needless to say, it’s been a welcome culmination of an entire year’s hard work and focus on this one goal. You made it. You punched your ticket for World Championships and now you know where you stand. The accomplishments of every boy and girl there competing at Worlds are somewhere around super-human because of their dedication to perfecting their dancing, and the teachers, their dancers, and the parents, the grandparents and the siblings, and, and, and…

It’s truly a world community effort to produce this order out of this chaos and the 48^th World Championship of Irish Dance was at day’s end, 7 days end to end, a very chaotic and orderly affair. Trophies and medals awarded, names and rankings, recorded.

So, nothing much left to do now about Worlds but set sight on next spring. Next up: North American National Championships (NANs) in Montreal, week of July 4^th.

Stay tuned.

Jim

Greetings from the Waterford Ambassador

 

St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Rochester, NY 2014

Canandaigua, NY. Rochester’s 37th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade was undoubtedly an auspicious beginning to our 2014 tour. Renee has been a marcher in our annual rite of spring since ’04 or ’05, but this year was clearly a very special year. She was so warmly welcomed by the Rochester Irish community and she was so proud to be recognized. She held her own place in the first division. A parade needs a princess, right?

Renee’s parade appearance was as special honoree, the Waterford Ambassador, selected by the Waterford Scholarship committee representing the sister city relationship Rochester, New York shares with Waterford, Ireland. This is a bit poignant as Renee, nor I or her mother has ever been to Waterford. We’d like to remedy that, yet in just a couple of weeks we’ll be skipping over the Emerald Isle once again on the way to London for the Irish Dance World Championships.

Nevertheless, because we have poured our souls and our pocketbooks into continued adventures ever nearer, we could have been no prouder, her mother and I, than to see her waving to the crowd out in the middle of Main Street. The next stop to Ireland couldn’t be that far off, surely. We trust in faith, in God and a bit of destiny to guide us along. Perhaps we’ll meet an Irish dancer from Waterford at the Worlds.

Yes, it’s all about the World Championships now and it’s hard to believe we’re nearly there. With a couple of competitions on tap this next two weeks, Renee will take the stage to get a reading on her readiness to quest for a world ranking. Not too many are called, and fewer are chosen at the World Championships. It’s estimated that less than 1% of competitive Irish dancers of all ages qualify to compete on the World stage.

Regardless the outcome, Renee will always be a beautiful Irish dancer and a true standard bearer for the Irish here in America, and wherever she may fly. She has immersed herself in the music, the literature and the history in a big way. Growing up, I had little exposure to the Irish save for the few sisters with that funny Gaelic lilt in their voices at Our Lady of Lourdes School.
Years from now,

I hope Renee will be able to look back upon a rich Irish heritage. She’s contributed more to ours than anyone I know save for my mother’s brother, my uncle Bill, who could sing a fine Irish ditty. It seems we’ve condensed an extreme amount of Irish into a single generation, but that’s really thanks to Renee herself.

I see Michael Flatley is a special guest speaker at this year’s World Championship opening ceremonies. Sadly, we won’t arrive in time to see him then, but I’d like to thank him in advance for setting a stage for a little girl to dance and work and grow to be a champion. Special props to Jean Butler.

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Years On

First solo dress – Feis at the Falls, Niagara Falls, 2007

Canandaigua, N.Y.  Hard to believe we’re 10 years on into the Irish dance experience, which doesn’t include the 7 years before we got Renee officially signed up in all this excitement. For all of those early years, “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” were rarely out of the VCR.

Occasionally, we’ll mark a memory with how many dresses ago it was. This was Renee’s first solo dress, and we figure that to be about 7 or 8 dresses ago not counting or counting Young School dresses. It was a big day for an up and coming dancer to don her first solo dress, even a 2^nd hand one, and I think it’s still my favorite. It set such a sunny tone for an exciting career, which it certainly has been so far.

With Renee graduating high school this year I could see where we might be on the home stretch. However, with so many possible futures for her talents and aspirations before us, World Championships fast approaching and decisions for a new graduate coming due, blending all the ingredients into some kind of grand plan will keep things interesting. It’s pretty much what we’ve always done, but there’s a lot more emphasis this year on career and things are coming on very quickly now.

We’re gearing up for our “new year’s” celebration, St. Patrick’s Day. The Chinese have there’s and the Jewish have there’s, so the Irish have there’s too. We’re pleased to celebrate anyone’s big day, as the Irish love to celebrate, so we’re pleased to have anyone so inclined to celebrate with us on March 17^th.

Things get going this month as the annual Rochester St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee is getting this year’s event set to kick off. It’s a highlight of the year for our fair city, rain or shine, sunburn or shivers, we’ve seen it all in the last 10 years on St. Paddy’s.

This year is special as last September Renee was selected as the Waterford Ambassador and Scholarship Winner at the Rochester Irish Festival. This means she’ll get to go with the fellow honorees in the parade’s lead division representing Rochester’s Irish sister city, Waterford and then later on, a march down Main Street with the Young School. Pretty cool.

Already she has been tapped as a representative of the local Irish community, and has been pleased to entertain with dancing and some pretty fair fiddling, thanks to the Rochester Irish Festival and St. Patrick’s Day committees. Cherisse and I naturally are very proud of her as she’s proven herself confident and poised in every situation, even having to make impromptu remarks in front of a roomful of strangers.

I’ve always exhorted her a la Kramer, “Poise counts!” And, I think she’s taken that to heart. Certainly, poise is what stands out among the many competitive champion Irish dancers whose company Renee has joined in the last few years. We look forward to their company again in London for Worlds in April. Being among them, as talented, dedicated and motivated as they all are is inspiringly electric.

As the Olympics proceed in Sochi, we reflect on the sacrifice all those athletes have signed up for. Theirs is a four-year commitment. We’re thankful that Renee has the opportunity to participate in her most competitive and prestigious event each year. What have any of us to do but to stay inspired?

May I be the first to wish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Jim

Happy New Year from the Tudor Studio

Canandaigua, NY.  A hearty hello to all and a wish for your success and happiness in 2014, with the hope that wherever you are today, you’re safe and warm.  Brrrr!!

Not much happening at the Tudor Studio currently. Winter came early and has driven the dancers into the basement. This, of course, has meant the conversion of my man cave into a dance studio.

Actually, my rather dingy basement was devoted primarily to my drumming, and I guess it still is, sans drums, until it’s warm enough to get the dancing back out to the garage, out of which I was driven back in September. I’ve had the stand of tall pines just outside to shelter what couldn’t be kept in the garage any longer.

Thanks to all this shifting about, we’re eying a total move, probably sooner than we realize, just so everyone can have a home. What began as simple ceiling plaster preservation seems to have generated a new 5 year plan, Irish dancing, more or less, leading the way.

If you’ve got a kid with talents and abilities and dedication, there’s nothing to do but support them the best you can. And so my hat’s off to all of those I have met and have come to know who go all out so their kids can be all in on the opportunities that are out there for them.

We’re currently counting the days to the Irish Dancing World Championships in London this April. That should speed the winter days by like nothing else we currently have available. We could be sitting on beaches soaking up the equatorial sun or enjoying the hot tub in some mountain resort where they have a roaring fire in every room. Instead, we’re going Irish dancing, and really, I couldn’t be more excited.

We know this phase will end, and soon. With Winter Olympics just ahead, it brings home with emphasis the amateur’s sojourn and the hopes and dreams that accrue through years of training and competing. It sure shows how if you want to be the best, you’ve really got to want it.,,a lot. And, you have to have a bunch of people who want it with you. None of those good things ever happen by themselves.

We’ll share our ups and downs and parlay the pluses into a life we have chosen along a path we’ll travel together with welcome wonder at where it all could lead.

As the great showman, Jackie Gleason, put it, “And away we go!”

Stay inspired in 20-14!

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

The New Dress Debuts

 Waiting for competition to begin at the New Jersey State Championships.

 

Canandaigua, NY.  This post’s picture gives you a pretty good look at Renee’s new dance dress. Although it arrived from Ireland less than 3 weeks ago, for us it’s been a constant source of weary wonder and wild speculation since the 4^th of July. Now at long last, it’s among the latest of Eire Design dresses to take the stage.

It was on Independence Day at North American National Championships in Anaheim that the girls met with world famous Irish dance dress designer, Gavin Doherty, founder of Eire Designs of Belfast. They laid out their vision for Renee’s next dress. Gavin personally measured her, twice to be sure, noting Renee’s athletic shoulder width and narrow waist. Colors were discussed that would comprise a dazzling spray of flowers for the bodice. He made note that Cherisse’s name was also the name of a color bordering on hot pink. This was not lost on the girls, but Gavin had a surprise.

Pink is not high on Renee’s list of favorites, but it is a perfect flower color, and Gavin liberally leveraged it. The general consensus thus far is that he did so very successfully. We’ve already had one offer to purchase the dress. I think Renee makes it look especially smashing.

The back story on the new dress is one of considerable angst because from the time you realize you need a new one until you actually have your perfect “majors” ready turn-out, you’re on a very long and winding road. That journey actually began right after World Championships in March. That’s when the timer began to tick in Cherisse’s head, because she’s the dance mom and it’s her responsibility to see to it her dancer is properly attired in time for the next “major”.

Renee’s previous dress was also a Gavin Doherty design, and a very successful one for two separate dancers thus far, one in Australia and Renee, here in the states. It took a great leap of faith to trust that this garment would arrive intact and actually fit, but it did and it did, and it sure looked great up there on the podium at Oireachtas (o-rock-tuss) in Philadelphia last year. The new dress was produced in time to be really ready for our annual pilgrimage to Philly in just a few weeks. Renee competes for the Mid-Atlantic title again on Black Friday.

       

3^rd Place at 2012 Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas.

There’s something about an Irish dance dress that apparently has the power to raise or lower one’s profile as a competitor, especially on the big stages, under the lights, at the major competitions. Figuring out that dynamic is not so easy under the florescent tubes in a high school cafeteria, inside the boards of a hockey arena or in front of the bleachers in a grade school gymnasium, typical environs for an Irish feis.  I think it will take me many more years to appreciate what that “something” might be, but suffice to say it is a spectacular and ever-evolving art form about which there are some very strong statements being made by some very creative people, and not just world famous designers.

Solo dance dresses are one of a kind, unique designs. This sets up a very interesting and tricky situation for the designer and the buyer. Although there are basic elements each dancer may choose, such as the color scheme, type of bodice and skirt, etc., the finished product is largely the domain and prerogative of the designer/dressmaker. You don’t really know what you’ve bought until you’ve got it in your hands. You hope you like it and you hope it fits.

We’ve been pretty lucky with this, but we’ve also done a lot of studying to try to identify the most forward trends, and a lot of worrying about getting the dress in time to acquire and make ready every imaginable accoutrement, from tiara to shoe buckle. The dress is just the beginning.

Renee’s teachers advised getting a top designer to make the new dress because they set the trends. Gavin Doherty is on a pretty short list of Irish dance dress trend setters. It was more money and less control than we’ve ever had over the dress making process, which was thoroughly bedeviling, but then we’ve never had higher hopes or expectations for Renee in her competitive career to date. So, you go for it. As I’ve said time and again, she’s the real deal. Can she work a Gavin Doherty dress? You bet.

As the feis dad, I try to stay removed from all the dress fluster, but it’s like a soap opera. It sucks you in and pretty soon I can’t tell whether it’s a dance contest or a sparkle contest I’m involved in, and I have a strong suspicion that my girls are becoming raging costume-aholics. But in a room full of Irish dancers and their moms and dads, the oo’s and ah’s smooth those wrinkles right out.

Flash back to this past Saturday morning, under the florescent tubes in the aforementioned high school cafeteria, thirty competitors pacing in hard shoes were waiting to get it on in front of the judges. We’d almost canceled our departure for New Jersey late the previous afternoon as a nasty cough had settled into Renee’s chest, but not wanting to miss debuting the new dress and waste a fresh spray tan she hydrated, medicated and we pressed on.

Fortunately, an early start to her competition and the great organizing and executing of the competition by host school, the Davis Academy, and the feisweb crew, Renee was able to compete at her best, the hard dry hack and low grade fever notwithstanding. Her showing, very happily, proved good enough to capture 3^rd place.

To me, that’s what Irish dancing has been all about, putting the best foot forward in every pressurized circumstance. That’s what Renee has learned to do so well, like last month in Pittsburgh — winning 3^rd on a fresh ankle sprain — and nothing could make a father prouder, if a picture is worth a thousand words.

No matter the sport, competing successfully takes a magical combination of grace and grit and a strong sense of destiny, because adversity is everywhere and true champions battle it all the time, they condition themselves to it, they must.

And so, my thanks to Gavin and Mary, Claire and Frances and Keith and everyone at Eire Designs, as their fabulous creation did indeed help Renee to carry on through a challenging day in a very big run-up to a major competition. With the new Gavin now in place, we’re confident that all the important pieces will fall together for this year’s Oireachtas.

Last year, Renee came from nowhere to take a place on the podium. This year, I think they’ll see her coming.

Stay inspired.

Jim

To Rise Above

 

 

Canandaigua, NY. In this post, I extend my thanks for the fine event put on by the Irish Centre of Pittsburgh this past weekend. We had heard about the Pittsburgh Halloween Feis for a few years and about how much fun it is seeing all the competitors dressed in trick or treat regalia instead of traditional dance dress. We weren’t disappointed. Michael Jackson, Captain America, Dorothy of Oz, fairies, witches and even traditional Irish dancers, they were all there.

As costumed and colorful as Irish dance competitions are, there’s not much deviation from the sequin encrusted, crystal bedecked norm when it comes to Irish dance costumes. So this was a new and fresh perspective for us compared to usual. However, it was no less important and there were high expectations among the competitors. After all, Oireachtas is just around the corner, that being our annual regional competition.

We envisioned a fun outing and a good tune-up for the upcoming big show. Ours is each year at Thanksgiving in Philadelphia. Renee dressed in a cute witch costume she had in her collection. She had a candy corn theme going, and with black tights, it was the perfect little dance ensemble.

There was an excellent field of 13 ladies for the Under 18 competition, mostly from Pennsylvania and Ohio. The soft shoe round was first, a slip jig, Renee’s strongest suit.

Taking to the floor she was poised and started out in fine form, making her way energetically to the front of the stage, then crossing diagonally to the back of the stage, a slip, and down she went. The room was aghast for an instant, and Renee hopped back up, but was clearly hobbling and was very kindly helped from the stage by the girl in her pairing.

Oh, that crestfallen feeling every parent of a fallen athlete knows. With a competition at hand and a major nearing, this was the dancer’s worst nightmare.

Her mother’s talented and knowing hands got to work on the twisted ankle while I bolted for ice and an ankle brace. Renee wanted to continue, and she would have her chance, as the judges will allow some grace in case the competitor can carry on.

By the time I got back they had applied ice and tape. We were able to slide the brace right over her shoe, and with black tights, it was barely noticeable. Renee tested the ankle, it wasn’t a catastrophic injury, but its extent was still a mystery. Would it hold up to three long hard dances? Renee was determined to perform. She hadn’t come all this way to give up now.

Her fellow competitors were very concerned and understanding because besides being some of the nicest people we’ve ever met, this could just as easily have happened to any of them as well.

We could see that Renee was taking a rather ginger stride back on to the stage for her re-dance. The musician began to play and she was off once again. Her performance was perhaps a bit more reserved than usual, but successful.

Round two and three would be in hard shoes. Ice, massage, the hard shoes go on. There’s not much time. I’m thinking this upcoming treble jig is going to punish the now sore ankle. I don’t know what Renee is thinking. She would relate later, after the competition, that she was running purely on instinct and adrenalin. It shows that to truly be a great Irish dancer, as in most sports, one must embrace the pain that comes with the training and the predictable minor injuries.

Her treble jig looked surprisingly together and strong. Now she would have a little time until her set dance round to stretch and loosen and regain some composure. This wasn’t going at all the way we had envisioned, but Renee was adapting and overcoming, like a trooper does. I was pretty much in shock, and Cherisse was laying on hands.

Events are teaching us that champions can’t be complacent. There’s no room for it here, but we slipped on this occasion. They say experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.

The set dance Renee is competing with currently is among the longest of them all, and if her start was a bit tentative, her push through three long complicated steps with a rousing finish was simply miraculous under her still dodgy physical circumstances.

What seemed all the more miraculous when all was said and done, were the judges’ assessments. Three judges determine the outcome of champion level competitions. As each competitors number was called from 13^th place upward, we were sure with each call that Renee’s number would be next. It was a crash and burn, how good a place could we expect?

No one was more surprised than we as with only three competitors left, Renee had not been called, and then she was, 3^rd place; incredible, after all this drama and displacement. Then, reviewing her score sheet, the judges’ own comments using language like “elegant”, “neat”, “pretty”, “great”, “well done”, proved the more that Renee had indeed risen above on this occasion.

To be sure, she’s let herself down in the past, and they were all experiences she will not allow herself to relive. So, fitting it was, I thought, that her prize this day was the Wendell August Eagle, pictured above; the eagle signifying the nature and the strength to rise above, to soar.

If my pride in her could alleviate any ache, pain or injury, Renee would be both indestructible and capable only of winning. Of course, she’s only human, and we were reminded of it on this day. Three days on, the ankle is still a bit tender and we’re treating aggressively. No more complacency as we prepare for the next couple of “tune-ups” before Oireachtas. We’ll let this experience carry us still higher.

Wishing you the desire and the capacity to always rise above,

Jim

The Bling Thing

Sash and vase won at St. Catherine’s Feis.

Canandaigua, NY. If you were to pay a visit to our dining room, you would see that it doubles as a sort of shrine to Renee’s Irish Dance career. I believe I’ve referenced the bling before, as in pounds of medals, scads of trophies, and lately, vases of every description. Shiny picture frames and assorted other totems that marked certain special moments in Irish dance competitions going back some 8 years are packed into curio cabinets and adorn virtually every book case, dresser, shelf and table around our house.

Hats off to Galway, Lennox and Balik, manufacturers of fine glass, for keeping up with demand from the Irish dance world. We’ve been giving their pretty vases away as they come in to some our most ardent supporters. It’s become a new way of staying inspired this feis season. It’s not like we need any more fancy glass. The giving perpetuates the meaning and spirit of the accomplishment the prize represents.

In Irish Dance they have perpetual trophies which are awarded to winners in various competitions at a feis. You don’t get to keep it, but it’s really big and they engrave your name on it. You might get to hold it for a year and then return it the next year. They’re pretty impressive.

So, thanks to the many feis committees for their kind attention to the awards they’ve chosen for the champion dancers at their events. Renee’s award for her first place finish at the St. Catherine’s Feis one year ago was spectacular. It was the largest glass candle holder I’d ever seen, a magnificent Galway creation. This year’s third place netted a slightly less ostentatious piece, but the lovely and perfectly functional Galway vase pictured above.

It’s all about the inspiration and the recognition, more important perhaps, to her mother and I than to Renee herself, as performing well and winning a place are her greatest rewards.

But, that wasn’t always true.

A first and 4 seconds at Feis Rochester.

Back in the day when you could rake in a medal or trophy in four or five events at a feis, it was a day at the fair for Renee, a first place, like winning that crazy toss the ring on the soda bottle game. Then, jingle, jingle, jingle, all the way home.

It sounds funny to reference “back in the day” for someone barely 17, but she’s been dancing her whole life and half of it competing in Irish Dance. However, as I look around, whew, she’s accomplished a lot, and she’s just getting started.

The day will come to move it all, and I imagine it can be reduced to a few box-loads, but for now, it’s the whole she-bang. As I look around I can see this is where we’ve been. Where to next? A lot of potential there.

Niagara Falls, the Southerntier and Canada are just on the horizon for August. Since last year’s Disney World sweet-sixteen birthday cannot be outdone, Renee’s upcoming birthday will be decidedly low key. It helps that it falls on a Tuesday.

When it’s suddenly September, we again try to figure out how Renee’s school schedule will fit into her dance schedule. This is always challenging because the dancers want to stay sharp for Oireachtas at Thanksgiving, the big regional competition, a major, the annual qualifier in Philadelphia.

It’s a lot, all the time, feis by feis, vase by picture frame, by medal, by plaque. To that end, I’d like to announce the coming of a new web presence that will attach to this blog which I hope will bring a bit of inspiration to every kid dreaming of becoming a Champion Irish dancer. My intention is to call it Inspired by Irish Dance, or something close to that, and it will convey an offer to both give a lift to aspiring dancers everywhere, and also to help support Renee in her ongoing amateur career, particularly her trip to London for World Championships next April.

Stay tuned, stay inspired.

Jim