 Name: Natalie J. Age: 9 How long have you been dancing with SRL? Since Kindergarten, going on my fifth year. If you could only bring one thing to a desert island, what would it be and why? My house, because it has a lot of stuff in it. How did you get started with Irish dance? I started at the church basement; Roisin Walsh was already dancing there. If you were a fictional character, who would you be and why? Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter.)  What’s your favorite dance memory?
Harry Potter Summer Camp! What’s your favorite snack? Fruit roll ups. What’s your favorite thing about dancing? Being with friends. What’s your favorite show to binge watch? iamSanna on YouTube (she has Roblox videos.) Who do you look up to? Miss Courtney Jay. What’s the best advice you can give a new dancer? Even though it is hard, you can do it! This post is part of a series. Check out the blog every Monday and Thursday for more posts about Irish history, dance culture, community news, and spotlights on our dancers, staff, and families—among other fun projects! And don’t forget to dance along with us on both Facebook and Instagram.
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Scoil Rince Luimni Irish Dance Academy, based in South Windsor & Farmington Connecticut, will have 31 dancers representing our school at the 2018 New England Regional Oireachtas held from November 16-18, 2018 in Hartford, Connecticut. Our dancers will be competing against the best of New England across three disciplines for regional ranking, National qualification for the North American Irish Dance Championships in July 2019, and the World Irish Dance Championships in April 2019. Dancers in the Traditional Set Dance competitions will be competing in the lower-tier competition designed to give up and coming dancers an opportunity to compete on the big stage against all the New England dancers in their age group. SRL is well represented in the traditional set dance competition with dancers hailing from:
The premier event in the solo championship which is for the highest level dancers that have climbed the ranks of competitive Irish dance over many years. These dancers are looking beyond improving their ranking and looking to place in the top 50% to be awarded their ranking on stage or qualify to a higher championship such as the North American Irish Dance Championship or World Championship. SRL will be represented in the solo championships by dancers from:
In the final team discipline, dancers perform standardized group dances called “ceilis.” Team competitions require precision in every movement, pattern, and step as each team is judged solely on execution. We have four 4-member teams that will compete in the 4-Hand Team competition:
We also have an 8-member team eyeing a result that would move them forward to the World Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina in April 2019. The girls competing on this team are: Gabby Gorman & Ellie Diver (Farmington), Emma Magnani & Emma Feeley (Springfield), Paige Miele (Westfield), Emily Messier (Glastonbury), Mackenzie Richards (East Longmeadow), and Cayla Batz (Coventry). Please keep all of our dancers in your thoughts and sending them positive vibes as they head into competition this weekend. These dancers have been working since the spring to fine tune their dances for their moment on stage and we wish them the very best of luck!  Please join us in wishing the very best of luck to our six dancers attending the North American Irish Dance Championships this week in Orlando, Florida. They have qualified through the regional championships and/or achieving Open Championship status, the highest level within the competitive ranks.
They will represent Scoil Rince Luimni, Connecticut/Massachusetts, and the New England Region in the championships against the United States, Canada, Mexico as well as dancers traveling from Australia, Ireland, the UK, and beyond. We are proud of their hard work through their preparation and are looking forward to their training shining on stage. Colleen Williams, 11, of Amston, CT and Bella Jensen, 11, of Somers, CT will compete in the Girls Under 12 division on Wednesday July 4th. They are best of friends and are practically inseparable, making training enjoyable for them while they make each other laugh almost constantly. It will be Colleen's second time attending the NAIDC and Bella's debut. Emma Magnani, 15, of Springfield, MA and Kayla Purcell, 15, of Hebron, CT will compete in the Girls Under 15 division on Monday July 2nd. Both are first time qualifiers and looking forward to experiencing this heightened level of competition together. Tara Lynch, 17, of Cheshire, CT will compete on Sunday July 1 in the Girls Under 18 division. She is a second time qualifier and learned a lot at her previous NAIDC in New Orleans last year. She is bringing her wisdom and experience with her this year and loves to perform on the big stage. Lindsey Hoffman, 18, of Columbia, CT will compete on Saturday June 30 in the Girls Under 19 division in her fourth appearance at the championships. After recovering from injury last year, she is giving it everything she has and brings more maturity and perspective than ever before. Each division has approximately 130 - 180 competitors and the top 50% of each group will be recalled to dance a third round before being awarded at the end of each day. No matter the outcome, we are proud of each dancer for qualifying for this major championship and their growth as dancers, performers, and competitors in their preparation for this week. You can follow the highlights on our Facebook page or for a more detailed look at each day, you can follow us on Instagram through our posts, stories, and IGTV.  Exciting news out of our class of 2018! Among our Scoil Rince Luimni dancers, two have been named their class valedictorian for 2018. We congratulate Lillian Bluestein, St James School Class of 2018, and Tara Lynch, Cheshire Academy Class of 2018, on their outstanding achievement in their respective schools. Both Lilly and Tara exemplify how Irish dancing and academic achievement go hand in hand. As dancers progress, their time in the studio increases and coupled with getting older, dancers quickly have to learn how to manage their time in order to stay on track in school and with their dancing aspirations. We tend to see dancers figure out how to manage their time rather than curtail their dance career, a trend that is seen not only within our school but the greater Irish dancing community as well. Over the last few years we've seen the oldest competitive age bracket expand and split to manage the higher number of dancers pursuing their competitive goals after college graduation, joining the workforce, and beyond. As dancers learn how to manage their time, they also learn to prioritize what is really important to them. It's no surprise that both Lilly and Tara find time to fit in community and family time as well as other commitments - Lilly is involved in her church and Tara is a soccer player. Other dancers within our school are involved in school clubs and sports which gives each dancer 3-5 priorities that come before screen time, trivial activities, or getting into trouble ;) Irish dancing is a disciplined and fairly regimented sport so this continues to feed the goal-focused, work-first, and continuously striving mindset that brings achievement in both academics and dancing. We teach goal setting and maintaining a positive mindset in ways that go beyond dancing and can be practiced in real life. We are sure Lilly and Tara will continue to do great things both in and out of the studio! Lilly will continue her studies at Northwest Catholic High School in the fall and Tara has been accepted to Ithaca College for communications. |
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