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

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