Fairwell to Feisianna

Renee takes 3rd place at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Region Oireachtas in Philadelphia

Canandaigua, NY. I’ve selected this picture for the blog in the past. It’s a favorite because it represents one moment when we were all so completely happy with the Irish dance experience. Previous Thanksgiving sojourns to Philadelphia had been pretty disappointing. When you don’t get what you want, experience is what you get. However, when you do get what you want, what you are, is HAPPY, and that’s what I see when I look at this picture.

As our run in competitive Irish dance has now come to an end, I figure, let us look back upon it with our fondest memories up most in mind. The 2012 Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas and Renee’s come-from-nowhere podium finish kind of started it all for the feisfunder blog, and so I think it’s fitting that it end feisfunder’s somewhat late-to-the-game run. A nod to Renee as she is endlessly inspired by her own accomplishments, and hers was the inspiration that kept us all going through four North American Nationals and three World Championships, all the way to a humble, but inspiring retirement from competition at the Bob Gabor Feis in Syracuse, NY.

It’s a little difficult to characterize our entire Irish dance experience in a few hundred words, when I finally have Renee’s entire competitive career to look back on, although it was just a scant 12 years. In that time a dream came to life before my very eyes. Not my dream mind you, but Renee’s. Her vision, focus and dedication have produced a future for her and our little family that eclipses any personal prize I could ever imagine short of Herbie Hancock asking me to join his band.

From the experience I got I can tell you that what you need as you hustle from feis to feis is fuel. You need fuel, and inspiration is that fuel. I know not from whence it comes, but I see it in the determination of the young people pursuing the glory that comes from perfecting a primal cultural expression – dance. And when it’s true to form and performed majestically with pride, any culture’s dance is its identity and forms the nervous system of a people who, while unrelated are still related.

True cultural expression is welcome around the world because people are naturally interested in and want friendship with their kinsman and neighbors in the world. Music, dance and art in their classic representations accomplish this for all of humanity. I mean, why would you want harm to come to a people whose civilization can offer such inspiring imagination, beauty and energy? What’s the use of fear and separation?

At the World Championships, the champions just get out on that stage and throw down. They already know there’ll be a hundred dancers behind them that want the prize, and they already know that there’s someone out there who maybe worked the harder and wants it more, and in the end – it’s all up to a panel of judges. Thankfully, having a life of its own, sheer pageantry carries the day. Every dancer wants to look their best, and each wants to do their best, oh, and have the performance of a life time, this time (no pressure).

I knew we were in for a long day when Renee returned to us from the stage after her first round, and while receiving compliments for her performance announces that she has just “bored John Carey”. The 8 time World Champion, trainer of World Champions and now judge at her Worlds competition was apparently not exactly rapt with her hornpipe. So I guess it was about time for some drama to ensue, and I guess you’d better impress him with your reel then.

Cherisse and I really had no expectations as Renee had precious little preparation for this competition compared to her normal un-injured run from Oireachtas in November until Worlds just before Easter. However, with only 7 to 8 weeks available to train flat out after the knee injury, her competition had been out-preparing her with every passing day for over three months. We didn’t really know what she’d have in the tank on competition day. No matter, Renee was here to dance like the champion who’d earned her right, and she would not accept anything but her best and now she’d bored John Carey.

Her second round, the reel in soft shoes was magnificent as it usually is, and a style trademark she’s known for in the ranks, but in the last few measures, breathtakingly close astride the dancer on stage with her she was unable to perform her final spin. Though she landed her final step with customary aplomb, she had blown it. That’s what she said. “I blew it.” As often happens dancers will tangle on the stage in the course of their dances and the results can be disappointing because your flow is broken, steps are missed. Fortunately for Renee, it was right at the end of the dance and in a situation in which judges could conceivably give you a pass on a flub in which you weren’t necessarily at fault, which she wasn’t.

Nonetheless, with a boring hornpipe and a flubbed reel, the girls set their minds on a hasty exit. I set my mind on a painful wait for the recall numbers. Roughly two hours passed and finally the recall list was in hand and the numbers were called out to the waiting dancers and their supporters. My heart was pounding as usual as I waited for the numerical result in which two thirds of the field was summarily eliminated — thank you, better luck next time.

The hush in the ballroom was punctuated by occasional outbursts as dancers received their recalls. The wait for Renee’s #181, being 81 numbers down the list was excruciating. Handfuls of dancers eliminated with each number called, and then “181”! Oh my God, she’s recalled, incredible, incredible! I rushed from the ballroom to find them. Round three would begin in just minutes.

Perhaps our fondest memory of this Worlds is Renee performing her set dance to “Vanishing Lake”, a contemporary set dance composition being played stage side on piano by its composer, Francis Ward, who had also been accompanying the dancers since 9 o’clock that morning. He played and Renee danced, and together I thought they were magic.

That Renee recalled and retained her World ranking is so much more than we could have hoped, Cherisse and I, but I learned something about these champions and that is, when you’ve worked hard enough to be at the top, you want to get to the top and so for some there was chagrin behind a gracious smile at the awards ceremony. This may have been their last chance, as it was for Renee, who accepted her medal with just a little disappointment as did many others on the awards stage with her.

Although competitions were over for her, Renee decided to attend her regular Sunday dance class and she found out that A. she can still dance those steps, though not without raising a few blisters; B. her feet and legs felt so much lighter without the weight of the dread of having to compete the new steps. So much lighter did they feel that she was actually enjoying the new dances for a change. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the story of how one little girl got happy feet.

Thanks to those who have faithfully followed and read the feisfunder blog. It’s been fun to write and reflect on a truly unique opportunity to engage with the fascinating and vibrant world of Irish Dance. As I’ve said, I never would have dreamt it, nor the future in Irish dancing that lies ahead for a young aspiring performer with her whole career now ahead of her. Perhaps there will be a subsequent reporting of the exploits of a young up and coming Irish dancer looking to conquer the world on the professional stage.

Keeping you posted, as always, and many thanks for your support.

Jim

HELLO WORLDS!

 

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

Irish Dance. Still Number One.

Renee 5 dresses ago. Graphics by Matt Kominiarek. Dress by Colleen O’Neil.

Canandaigua, NY. It’s truly amazing to look back on the lifetime of a child now grown, and to have witnessed an unbroken chain of events guided by one central theme. I’ve eluded in past posts to what I guess you could call the “Riverdance effect”, as very early on, we came to the rather startling realization: this kid really wants to dance. Renee had memorized and performed “Riverdance” and its dramatic Flatley follow-up, “Lord of the Dance”, almost daily for years before ever setting foot in an Irish Dance studio. Jean Butler was her star.

So began our Irish saga and 18 years of a life fueled by dreams, passion, determination, adversity and elation. I sense the chapter nearing an end and it makes me think of the song that goes, “What are you doing the rest of your life?” You have to be pretty old to remember that tune, and it continues, “The North and South, the East and West of your life?” We’ve been a lot of places and made a lot of memories, but what exactly is next?

Apparently we’ve come to some turning points. Renee certainly has, and at 18 we’re glad she has a number of directions in which she can turn and retrain that laser focus of hers.

I could say that these past 18 years have literally flown by, but they have not. They have been long and hard seeing this child all the way to the World Championship stage. There has been a lot I wish had worked out differently, but that’s hindsight, and really, it all unfolded just the way it was meant to. I hope for Renee, that her last experience in competitive Irish Dance is as rewarding as her first experience. When and where that may occur I can’t predict. I do know that now it’s on to Montreal for one more World Championships.

World Championships, where everything has to click, and it has to click to the beat!

Now is the time we will see just how Renee’s love of Irish Dance has matured and how it will move her toward this goal. It’s a restart, for sure. Time away, is exactly that and you really feel it when you once again engage the strain of perfecting the intricate footwork, the precise jumps and turns. Fortunately, all the while she’s been healing her knee injury she has been able to rely on her employ as a coach at the gymnastics center, the YMCA and her dance students to keep her moving and at the very least, on the edge of the conditioning she will need on Dance Day, April 2^nd. It fast approaches.

After a podium finish in Philadelphia, then failing to recall in Boston in 2012, but achieving her ranking in London in 2013, a top 10 at Nationals, I guess you could say that at this juncture, Renee is poised to come from out of nowhere – perhaps her best position. However, a lot depends on the quality and persistence in her training. How much can be accomplished in a very short time?

Well, let’s see.

Keeping you posted.

 

Jim

 

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

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

MINDING THE GAP

 

Promotional picture from Renee’s CV photo shoot. Photo by Matt Kominiarek.

Canandaigua, NY. And so, here we are. What lies beyond the green door?

Just a few steps outside the great gate that girds Renee’s childhood paradise at Sonnenberg Gardens stands one of Canandaigua’s most popular photo settings. It was 10 years ago this weekend, Labor Day, in the USA, that the Burns’ moved into the Gatehouse there, and ten years ago that Renee began her formal Irish dance training at the Young School of Irish Dance. Last week was spent with choreographer extraordinaire and two-time World Champion, Donna Griffin, and this completed the last leg of the very exciting, mega-dancing 2014 summer tour, leading to a new beginning for us all now — in the “gap year”.

Borrowing a line from London Underground, we’re busy minding the gap between high school graduation and…what? Aside from discovering that taking a gap year after high school is fairly common, allowing a young person to contemplate their direction forward, whether through further education, skills training, employment or otherwise, we’re trusting that we have built a solid foundation for all future aspirations and potentials.

Renee has aspired to dance on stage in the big Irish dance shows since the age of 1. Her determination has carried us this far. She’s about as conditioned as she could possibly be, and you’re only 18 once – but for a whole year. So, as much as it unsettles the very conservative, get-your-ducks-in-a-row, earn-your-degree(s)-and-make-a-contribution-to-this-world matriarch of our family, losing this particular moment could result in a lifetime of regret. College degrees can be acquired over time and will endure, but youth is fleeting. Cherisse and I both agreed, we couldn’t let Renee go through life wondering “what if?”

After her last few years’ hard work as an Open Champion competitor, and the sacrifices we’ve all made getting ready and getting to all the major competitions: Philadelphia, Nashville, Chicago, Boston, Anaheim, London, Glasgow, Montreal, and countless local miles in between – we’ve been locked on to these coordinates. So, here we are. How will we accomplish her next objective?

It’s a fairly straight forward proposition really. She has a CV (curriculum vitae), some excellent references, a demo reel and the desire. So, if you’re reading this and you want an awesome Irish dancer for your dance show, variety review, video production, television program, podcast, film project or other, Renee has the goods. Please contact us. I’m not sure it will be easy for us, but we’ll let her go.

In the interim, there’s one more Oireachtas in Philadelphia at Thanksgiving to prepare for and one more World Championships next Spring in Montreal. Renee will continue taking classes at the Young School, working with her private students, and she’ll be putting in some time training budding gymnasts at Eagle Gymnastics, her second home here in Canandaigua for 13 years, as well. Filling her days will be the least of her challenges. What will the big challenges be?

I know how a childhood dream can hang on. I knew I wanted to play music from a very early age, and I could never let it go, and I can never get enough. I can relate to the thrill her Studio2Stage experience produced because it touched that chord she heard so clearly 17 years ago. She had her first real taste. It was brilliant.

It fired the imagination seeing the first fruits of all her hard work come to life in a bangin’ dance show like the S2S crew put on last month. Being truly her mother’s daughter, her attention to detail got her appointed a dance captain during the week long rehearsals, and this added to her excitement and satisfaction with the production and most importantly, a vision for her future. Now, it’s time to get down to business of letting the world know what’s up.

So, here she is, poised before the big green door.

Keeping you posted.

Jim

GOING PRO.

Canandaigua, NY. In five days I’m off to New Jersey with Renée, a fiddle, nine days worth of dance gear (don’t ask) and a dream now almost 18 years old. Studio2stage has been a focus for the last six months and at the moment there’s some uncertainty as to whether that’s a light at the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train. It’s rather like that when you’re constantly throwing yourself into ever more foreign and challenging situations. Apparently, that’s where the opportunities are.

Studio2stage came about when Renée’s dance teacher (the fabulous Paula Burke) passed along notice of an audition. It looked to be right up Renée’s alley, like all these years of competitive Irish dancing led exactly here – pretty convenient. So, an audition was videoed and uploaded, a headshot and a bio and then we waited for word.

While we waited, we counted down to World Championships and a trip back and forth to London followed by North American Championships in Montréal and a feis or two. No point in sitting by trying to hatch this dream on the off chance she would be selected for this very exciting professional try. When we learned she had been accepted on to the Studio2stage Crew we were pretty stoked. Then we had to bone up on bank wire transfers and boogie overseas.

This particular opportunity isn’t like getting hired, but it is getting a good look-over by some people who could conceivably hire or refer you — producers, dancers and choreographers from the big shows like “Riverdance”, “Lord of the Dance”, “Heartbeat of Home” and others. So, it seems more like a professional workshop, which many professions have. However, we get a big dance show at the end of it, and we’re very excited to see Renee and a good group of the dancers Renee has competed with and against for years coming on to perform.

If competing in the major Irish Dance competitions has shown us anything, it’s that you want to get things over the hump and rolling down hill so when precious golden moments arrive, you’ve got lots of motivation and momentum in the desired direction. Anyway, I think we’ve got it, and if the packing goes well we should have it knocked.

There’s certainly glory in living, and Renée has proved that. There’s also exhaustion and overload, so with Renee away, perhaps Cherisse and I can va-k. We’ll see her in Union, NJ at Keene University on August 3^rd. Anyone wishing to come to see the show is invited, and I can vouch for the talent.

You can check out the venue and ticket details here: http://www.keanstage.com/seasontickets/dance.asp

My heart is pounding already.

Jim

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