Blog Challenge: Inspiring video

In honor of back to school and back to dance, September's blog challenge is to post an inspiring dance video.

One of my favorite inspiring Irish dance videos is the trailer to Jig.



I first saw this trailer right before I left for New York to compete in my first open champ feis.  At the time, I was training for my first world championship.  Being able to watch this video on the daily gave me that much more excitement for the competition I was about to dance in.  Watching such awesome dancers live out their own worlds journey, even if only in a two minute video clip really gave me that extra boost to practice.  The makers of the trailer packed in all the quintessential elements that I love about Irish dancing.  And come on, Mike Stobbie did such a good job on the music that you can't help but move.

Goals: PT exercises
Days till Os: 79

Oakley Rebellion

Remember this?

The contest closed shortly after World Championships, and although I was not the grand prize winner, due to your support and votes on the Facebook contest, I won for the month of April! I am now taking an opportunity to THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for without your support, I would not have won! I should be receiving some nice Shaun White Holbrooks in the mail anytime now, and I will think of Irish dance every time I wear them.

Here's the official website featuring the winning video entry.

I find it interesting that I was one of two women who entered the competition (I think). Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, or that it was open only to men, but it is interesting. I do suppose the competition was catered more to men. The prizes were men's sunglasses. The model videos are all of men (albeit, cute/sexy/hardcore men). I didn't purposefully set out to prove that I can compete with the boys, but now that the contest is over, I can certainly see that as an ulterior motive of mine, being that I have a competitive edge and a thirst to prove myself to others (read: I'm slightly cocky. What? I have faults too.).

For this contest, we were showing how we were rebellious, how we overcame obstacles in our life to succeed. My "rebellion" in the beginning was how late I started dancing, and how I still succeeded. My "rebellion" was how Irish dance is not mainstream, and here I am entering a contest for a company known for superior mainstream household names like Shaun White and Lance Armstrong. My "rebellion" after the fact was that I was a women entering a mostly men's contest, and showcasing an art form and a culture to those who otherwise wouldn't have see it. The 1300 views my video has proves that.

Goals: Get ready for Old Dominion, keep up with new non-dance workouts

Inspirational #10

Over the weekend, I made a video to enter into the Join the Rebellion contest from Oakley, in hopes of winning $400 worth of Oakley gear, and my video featured on their website, among the likes of Shaun White and Lance Armstrong among others. I didn't expect it to get many viewers, as it's just for a contest on Facebook. Little did I know that less than 24 hours after posting it, the dance.net community would find it, and it would have it's own thread.

< edit > The Diddlyi community has found it as well, and it's currently a featured video there, with the most views today. Who knew I'd go viral in the Irish dance world?! < /edit >

I am extremely flattered and a little speechless that everyone is praising how inspirational the video is. I did not mean it to be that way, and I sort of can't believe it in a way, that I'm inspiring others to dance, and even one person to come back from a 15-month hiatus from dancing. Did I mention how honored I feel? This is unreal to me.

I would appreciate if you would vote for me after you watch it! (Yes, you need a Facebook) And thank you for your support and the kind words!

Goals: Stamina

Days till worlds: 17

Like a shirley temple convention...

This is all the rage in the Irish dance world right now. There is a documentary being released in the UK later on this year about last year's world championships. I only hope that us dancers in the USA are able to get a hold of a copy. They're making a movie about my sport. I need to see it. It looks like the producer captured all the drama, and just overall it looks like a job well done.

Goals: stamina, turnout

Days till worlds: 69