Finding Your Dancer's Unique Path

"[I appreciate] Courtney's structured, patient, and kind approach. She has her finger on the pulse of her students, knowing what they need and when, and I believe she had a lot to do with [my daughter's] growth this year."

We’ve just come off of a grand total of 145 hours of camps for both new students and our returning dancers. It’s a humbling juxtaposition of dancers who are falling in love with Irish dance for the first time and those who love the sport and are chasing every aspect of it with everything they have.

Dancers ages 2 through almost 30 worked to develop their repertoire, technique, and joy for dance over the last four weeks. Each with different goals - some just finding their feet and others chasing big dreams - they came to the studio each day with open minds, purpose, and their unique personality that reminded me why we take an individual approach for each dancer.

We have standards and expectations that set a framework of mutual respect between teacher & student, commitment to the process from both sides, and the support of classmates and teammates while pursuing individual goals at the right pace for each dancer. I’ve always held the belief that two dancers that appear very much the same on paper will end up with two very different journeys on two very different timelines.

Some journeys require more patience, more sacrifice, more sensitivity, or more reassurance from either parent, student, or teacher. It’s like we’re all walking through the same park but taking different paths and some will arrive on the other side later than others - and that’s okay.

Our goals at Scoil Rince Luimni are to first and foremost develop a love for Irish dancing - all of it, some of it, or simply an appreciation for movement, fitness, or expression. Next we aim to expose dancers to different routes of exploring dance outside the studio walls - performing, competing, exams - whether they try one, all, or a combination of the three. Some dancers will respond well to all avenues while others will have one or two that really speak to them. Finally, we support the whole dancer as they walk their chosen path(s). We make sure they are supported in just about every way - mind, body, and soul by bringing in outside experts where appropriate, continuing to innovate and adapt to new research and technology, and checking in with the dancer often on their approach, goals, and expectations.

Every dancer’s journey is met with challenges along the way - scheduling conflicts, choosing their primary activity, injuries, slumps in motivation and results, etc. While the road isn’t always smoothly paved, we like to help guide parents and dancers through the detours with our expertise and dancer-centric approach.

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