St. Patrick's Month, Part 2

This post is all about a performer's perspective from D.C.'s Shamrockfest, a one day festival full of Bands, DJs, and other Irish entertainment.

This year was Shamrockfest's first year under Red Frog Event management. I know of many attendees who were very unhappy, especially with how food and drinks in the VIP area were handled. I head of poor communication with performing groups leading up to the festival. As it's this company's first year hosting the event, I hope they will improve upon what they learned. All of that aside, I have to say that this year was the best treatment of the Irish dancers that I've ever been a part of.

For starters, we got to park in the performer's parking lot at RFK Stadium. No paying ridiculous amount for parking, and none of that being crushed in the hordes coming and going from the Stadium-Armory Metro station. Upon parking, us performers were given our wristbands to access all the areas we would be needing: backstage, performer's hospitality, and a way in and out of the actual festival, should we wish to participate with the other Shamrockfest revelers.

I chose for the most part to stay in the backstage areas. And really, why wouldn't I? In the performer's hospitality area, we had an entire tent dedicated to food and drinks! Shamrockfest provided me with lunch and dinner that day, as well as access to as much Angry Orchard as I wished. There were chairs we could sit in and visit with dance friends away from the crowds of festival attendees, but still in close enough range to hear the great bands without blowing out eardrums. (Not to mention that we were essentially rubbing elbows with all the band members performing that evening.)

Come time to perform, we were shuttled in a bus from the hospitality area to our stage, where we were told we had eight minutes to perform. This is a drastic difference from previous years. Before, each dancing group had about 20 minutes to do their thing, but this year's festival focus was more on the bands. We danced three numbers nearly back-to-back, only after having to halt set-up progress of the band on after us so we had as much dancing space as possible (which was wide enough, but very, very shallow).

To cap off the night, we danced with a Richmond-based band, Carbon Leaf to one of their most well-known songs, The Boxer.

View from backstage

I did not stay after that final performance to catch Reel Big Fish or the Blues Travelers mainly for crowd avoidance. I still had great fun that day! Here's to a few more festivals to come!

Goals: Stamina
Days till NANs: 92

St. Patrick's Month, Part 1

Weekends in March are famously accounted for as an Irish dancer. We are needed everywhere for every type of Irish celebration you can think of. With green hair to match the spirit of the season, I set out for three weekends of dancing this month with varying degrees of enjoyment.

March 8th held one performance: a parade fundraiser at a nearby pub. I was put in charge of this performance and had to:

1. Run the practice beforehand (with dancers showing up late)
2. Choose the dancers for numbers (without knowing everyone's skill levels), and
3. Choose the numbers and order of performance.

Pair all of that with having no one step up to talk between numbers, which meant that the organizer of the event continually asking if we were done every time there was a pause to change shoes and younger dancers upset for a reason I didn't know, and you get my least favorite performance of the season. I can run the practice and dance, or run the practice and talk, but running the practice, talking, and performing is not a combination that I am capable of.

March 14th included two evening performances across Maryland. The first was at a St. Patrick's Day dinner, and featured an extra dodgy dancing surface. Now, It's pretty well known that as Irish dancers, we're going to be dancing on some not so prime surfaces in March, but this one takes the cake for me. Tile. Large square foot long tiles. Luckily, we were told this beforehand, so we skipped out on most of our hard shoe show numbers, and only used hard shoes for our finale. It was still slippery though. (Side note: how is it that we must dance on bad surfaces a month before worlds?) They did feed us hot dogs after performing, so all was well.

AOH Bowie St. Patrick's Day dinner. Not pictured: dodgy tile surface.

Afterward, the same crew drove on over to a barn hosting a fundraiser and St. Patrick's Day party. We go to dance hard shoe numbers here! I also got to cap of my night with a complimentary glass of wine, so it was a great night.

Champ dancers at a St. Patrick's Day fundraiser, Arnold, MD.

March 15th was parade day! It was a very windy day! You can see just how hard the wind was blowing in the pictures below because the bangs on my pixie cut was going crazy! It was also a little cold, but things certainly warmed up as we danced down Constitution Ave! Even with the wind cutting through my jacket, I was nearly sweating by the time we reached the grandstand. I learned this year (my first ever dance-down-the-parade-route year) that I need to put different shoe laces in my shoe because they came untied not once, but twice, even though I double knotted them before the parade started. Ah, well.

After the parade, a group of older champ dancers headed over to Fado's Irish pub where we danced between a band's sets. Two other dancers and I almost didn't make it, though! The vehicle we were travelling in got a flat tire as we left the parking spot. Luckily, we had some tire changing pros on hand to save the day, and we made it to the pub in time. I finished off the weekend with a large helping of shepherd's pie, Strongbow, and great time with friends.

Coming up next week, part 2: Shamrockfest!

Goals: Drill all hornpipes together
Days till NANs: 100

Mini Update: St Pat's Edition

Hello Irish dance fans!  March Madness has come and finally gone in a blur of wigs and shiny objects.  I sat out for much of the St. Pat's activities, as I was at that fine line of kind-of-still-injured-but-can-dance-a-little, but I still was able to contribute in my way between physical therapy appointments and work obligations.

I attended the D.C. St. Patrick's Day parade to help organize the little ones as they did their jigs and reels down Constitution Avenue. It was a very cold day, and I was almost sad to not be dancing since it would have helped keep me warm!

Can you spot me in the back?

I also was able to dance at the festival spectacle that was Shamrockfest at RFK stadium.  I was very thankful for the beautiful weather we had that day.  There have been years past that it was cold, or it rained and made the stages completely un-danceable.

This is a lovely picture of my backside.

Of course, I also celebrated in my classroom by teaching my students a few different ceilis from the book. (We walked them!) We culminated our activities by watching Lord of the Dance, a surprising favorite for some of the fourth and fifth graders.  Maybe I am inspiring new Irish dancers!

Goals: build up stamina
Days till Os: 227

Mini Update

In this month's edition of Mini Updates: Oireachtas, feiseanna, performances, and a giveaway!

Oireachtas Prep

• As much as I hate to say this, I haven't been practicing as much as I should.  My current practice plan was put on hold from when school started until essentially now.  This week, though, I'm getting back into doing a very focused 20 minutes of drills a day, whether it be stamina, or rhythmic bits from my hornpipe.
• I also suffered a minor set back last Wednesday that had me more scared than anything.  In the first dance practice of the fall and as I was running through my reel's second step, I twisted my ankle.  I judged it to be a minor sprain, as here I am a week later dancing.  Taped up, but dancing.
• This past Sunday was the first day of our Oireachtas team practices. I'm on two mixed teams, which I think is awesome.

Upcoming Feiseanna

• I have registered for both Rhythm of Ireland Feis in October, and the Coyle Feis in November.  More later on individual goals for each feis.

Halfway to St. Paddy's Day

• Performance number two (Fairfax Irish Fest) went very well.  We performed with a live musician, which was a great practice opportunity for the younger dancers performing about being flexible and adaptable with tempi.  I greatly enjoyed meeting with younger dancers from my school who I don't usually see due to being in a different class.

A New Look

• Right before school started, I cut off all my hair! (Well, not all of it, but a lot of it).  I have experimented with a bun wig to great effect.  I can still be the Star Spangled Girl With the Curls...my curls are just much smaller (and held in by many more bobby pins).

Do you want a free pair of ghillies? (Who am I kidding, of course you do!)

• Fellow Irish dance blogger and author, Christy Dorrity is releasing her very first novel for young adults entitled Awakening: Book One of the Geis.  The book is based in Celtic mythology and is about an Irish dancer, so she is hosting a giveaway to win a pair of Hullachan Pro ghillies.  To find out how to enter the giveaway, click here.

Awakening: Book One of The Geis
by Christy Dorrity
Photo: courtesy Christy Dorrity

That's it for me dance fans! Hope your next month goes smoothly!

Goals: Seriously, do your daily 20 minute drills. No excuses.
Days till Os: 73

Not your typical St. Patrick's Day

We are just over halfway to St. Patrick's Day 2014, Irish dance fans!  I only now realized that I didn't mention anything here on Rince go Bragh about what I did almost six months ago on the actual St. Patrick's Day, so I thought I'd clue you in.  St. Patrick's Day was celebrated a little differently this year: on an airplane.

You see, my at-the-time boyfriend enlisted in the Army.  Shortly after the new year turned, he left for Fort Benning, Georgia to begin a new chapter of his life as an infantryman.  When I was told that he had a weekend off between basic training and advanced individual training, I jumped right onto booking my flight and getting a hotel.  There was only a short moment of hesitation because his family weekend happened to fall on St. Patrick's weekend.  I knew I would be letting my dance family down by not being available, but I felt that seeing him was more important.

I was able to celebrate in my own wee way that St. Patrick's Sunday.  I napped to slip jigs and sets on the plane.  While lounging in the Atlanta airport, I managed to do so in true Irish dancers style by wearing poodle socks over black leggings.  The top half of my body was celebrating all the wonderful things about March and being an Irish dancer.  Selection Sunday happened to fall on St. Patrick's Day this year, making my t-shirt choice all the more appropriate.



I am currently making up for missing my usual slew of dance outs by having back-to-back Saturdays with dance performances. (In September nonetheless!)  Last Saturday, my dance school was able to perform with (and between sets) of the Dublin City Ramblers.

I also rocked a bun wig for the first time in a while.

You can catch myself and the Maple Academy again this weekend (and other Northern Virginia dance schools) at the Fairfax Irish festival Saturday at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax, VA. 

Goals: Start daily 20 minute practices again
Days till Os: 80

North American Nationals, Everything Else

I arrived at LAX and was delighted to share a Super Shuttle van with dancers from Boston and Vancouver.

I checked into the Hylton and was excited that I had a room that faced Disneyland, basically in-line with Cinderella's Castle.  I got to enjoy Disney fireworks from the comfort of my own hotel room for three of the four nights I stayed in Anaheim.

I spent some time practicing to limber up after a five and a half hour flight.

I met the amazing dancers of TapTronic.  They were truly the celebrities of nationals, especially with their live performances before awards on the 4th and 5th.  I was able to catch both performances, and even got a (slightly crummy because of the lighting where I was) video of Crave You, that you can watch by clicking here.  They have also released their own video of their time at nationals, which you should totally check out.

I met new friends and was able to hang out with other dancers in my region who traveled alone.  I can't wait to see them again at local feiseanna and the Oireachtas in December.

               

 

I had a really fantastic time at my photo session with Prine Photography that I won from the instagram contest.  There are a ton of fun pictures, and they all turned out wonderfully! (Some of my favorites are below)

                

 

Most importantly, I spent some quality time by the pool to enjoy the beautiful California weather.

Goals: Eat clean, train dirty!
Days till Os: 123

Blog Challenge: Performance Pictures

The Dance Buzz is doing monthly blog challenges, and while I may not have been up to doing all the months (yet), I feel the time is ripe for a new post to let you know I am not dead.

The May challenge is to post performance pictures.  These I'm about to share are from my dance school's recital in March of 2011.  They were taken by my mum.

A cool figure choreography shot.

Look at those lines!

My favorite, purely because of the wig motion.

Ending pose to our figure choreography.

Great leaping action shot.

Goals: Ease into dancing (!)
Days till Os: 197

March Madness

Here is a list of where I will be "performing" in the next month:

9: Elks Lodge: Riverdale, MD
        Done!  Ran music!  Success!

10: Four Courts Four Miler; Arlington, VA
        Done!  The dancers did very well despite being chilly, and breaking the small platform stages!

11: DC St. Pat's parade & Fado's Pub performance
        Due to no float this year, I will sit this one out, and instead be at Fado's all day!

15: AOH; Bowie, MD

17: TBA -- There are a lot of options here, will post later when I know where I'm needed

24: Shamrockfest; RFK Stadium
        This is a possibility depending on my foot and how much I want to stand.

Enjoy the March Madness, Irish dancers!

Goals: Heal up!

Mini Update

Things I was doing before I was injured:

• The week after the Oireachtas I learned all my new steps for the year.  Senior ladies are dancing slip jig and treble jig, so I have both those dances, as well as my new set for the year, Kilkenny Races.
• As I was learning my new set, I thought it would be completely impossible because there are a lot of new rhythmic things I either had not done till that point, or needed some work.  After about a month, I had the whole thing finally learned and could perform without stopping to think.  There were still parts that needed lots of work (like the left foot of the step), but I could get all the way through!
• I was in generally getting geared up for nationals in continuing to work on turn out and my overall dancing.

I went to the doctor this past Tuesday.  My ankle is beginning to heal up, and I can begin to walk with crutches and test out walking with only my boot.  I go in again this Tuesday coming up hopefully to get rid of the crutches and to get my orders to start physical therapy

St. Patrick's month is upon us already.  Although I won't be dancing, I do plan on attending what I can to support my fellow dancers and dance school.  I will post my full schedule at a later date, but look for me in the D.C. St. Pat's parade!

Since I can't dance quite yet, I'm taking the Mad Abs March challenge!  This is mostly a personal thing, since the February one failed around the time I hurt myself and couldn't catch up with what I missed.  Feel free to print it out and complete it yourself!

I attended my first pub session this past Monday night at Ireland's Four Provinces in Falls Church, VA.  While I did not dance, I did sing one song (I only really know one Irish sing well enough to perform).  I will learn more so I can contribute more!  I mostly enjoyed listening to what the others were doing.

I have started an Irish dance tumblr.  Mostly because there are so many fantastic Irish dance photos out there to share, and I want something more photo-friendly than this wordy blog!

Check out this article by Christy Dorrity for Feis America's online site at Irish Central.

Also, you may see a familiar face in an upcoming issue of IDM!

Goals: keep healing!

St. Patrick's week adventures, part 1 (con't)

Here's a video of us dancing with Carbon Leaf! I may have mentioned how much fun it was... (once, twice, a million times).

Goals: Get ready for Big Apple feis

Days till worlds: 35

St. Patrick's week adventures, part 2

Today was overall slightly less adventurous, which probably stemmed from the lack of freely flowing alcohol. However, this did not dampen my excitement and general good spirits once I woke up and started moving. But before I get into my day, who's brilliant plan was it to have Shamrockfest the night before we lose an hour due to daylight savings? I needed more sleep last night than what I got...

After a hectic morning of waking up late (ahem)... I did end up making to the Metro at exactly the time I had planned, fully wigged and dance dress and other attire in tow. This is not the first time I have Metroed into DC looking like this. I'm not going to go so far to say it's a regular occurrence, but it certainly seems to be an annual one. One of the more exciting parts of my day happened to be the Metro ride this morning. Aside from the general odd looks, I had one group of guys "slyly" take a picture of me. I say slyly because I was on to their shenanigans, andcheesed it up. I also had a family of 16 from Hawaii end up talking to me and taking a group photo with me after we got off the Metro. I have apparently reached minor celebrity status.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent between decorating the car for the parade, freezing my butt off, and generally getting ready to be in the parade. Despite the cold and breezy morning, the weather warmed up nicely during our time in the parade. We got to see a great deal of it as they passed by our float on the way to the main parade route, which was nice. As for our time in the parade, it was essentially a free for all for us dancers on the float, just calling who was going to next and with whom. By far the most interesting part was performing for the grandstand on the float, which was bouncing up and down and generally unstable feeling.

We concluded the day with a little performance at Fados. Little here is not metaphorical. The pub was literally packed from a mixture of Caps fans who came after the game, and parade watchers who walked down afterwards. Needless to say, us 11 dancers didn't have much space, so I guess it's good to say we're Irish dancers and not doing crazy things with our arms.

One of the more brilliant things I did today was to bring my new jig shoes and wear them all day long, which means now they are almost broken in! The completely not brilliant part of today was my lack of sunscreen, and while my dress and tights covered most of my body, my face was exposed to the sun all morning and afternoon, which has left me with a sunburn of epic proportions. My face is still getting redder and redder as it all settles in...

And I'm going to conclude by including a nice little shout out here to the GMU basketball team, who will be playing the second round of the NCAA tournament on Friday against Villanova. Go Mason!

Goals: turnout, finish breaking in shoes

Days till worlds: 39

St. Patrick's week adventures, part 1

I gotta write all this down now before my adventures today leave my head. Look for edits (pictures hopefully, videos extra hopefully, but unlikely) sometime in the near future.

My day started out early (read: 6am), when I woke up to get ready for performance number one of the day. Me and a small group of my fellow dancers performed at the beginning and end of the Four Courts Four Miler this morning. Besides being rather chilly, despite the forecasted 60 degrees and sunny, the performance was fun, mostly because we had to figure out how to fit seven dancers on two platforms of tiny dimensions (4 sq ft on one, and 8 sq ft on the other). It was treble reels for the win here. But the crowd enjoyed it, when they had the opportunity to watch. Mostly, the crowd was running past, finishing their four miles.

After this, we moseyed our way over to IHOP for some delicious breakfast items, being it was only about 11am. The IHOP we ate at was seriously the smallest sit down restaurant I had ever been in, but it was also smack-dab in the middle of Ballston, nestled among office and apartment buildings. Its after this that the day gets really interesting. There's never a dull moment at ShamrockFest!

We got lost and drove through southeast DC. No extra explanation here. It was plain sketchy.

The magical orange wristband. This little piece of paper really got me through the day, and I thank it from the bottom of my heart. Not only did it give me access to all the free drinks I could have (which I really didn't take advantage of), but it also got me backstage access (read: no port-a-potty lines). The only misfortune it brought about was that it was so special and orange. The other VIP wristbands given out were green, and constantly through the day we all had to explain that we are performers, and this wristband is supposed to be our way to access everything. Most believed us.

We performed as a dance school. And I saw a bunch of my sisters watching, not to mention other non-AXiDs out to support me and/or my dance school. It was fun, and I really realized here that I like performing for this sort of crowd. No pressure because they're either drunk and won't remember it tomorrow, or drunk and don't know much about Irish dance. Or both.

A small group and I performed with Carbon Leaf. I'm going to be honest and say I know nothing about this band, other than they were at Shamrockfest today, and that I have one of their songs in my iTunes library, which sadly is not the one we performed to tonight. Again, despite there being a huge crowd, I was completely exhilarated and all sorts of happy feelings. Afterwards, we met with the band for pictures and some t-shirt signing (we all got free shirts), and they seem like genuinely nice and talented people. I can't wait to explore their music more in the near future.

We discovered that they stopped serving alcohol sometime between 6 and 7:30pm. That was a bummer. My little group and I had plans to drink and stay for Dropkick Murphy's, however, our discovery was a buzz kill and we left RFK just as soon as they started their set. We did get to pet the Dropkick Murphy's dog earlier in the day, if that counts for anything.

So ends the highlights of my Saturday adventures! I am seriously hoping this is legible and coherent. It is late, and I've been up for a really long time...

Goals: Rest, heal, turnout

Days till worlds: 40

I'm not dead, I swear...

...this semester has just been too hectic for me to concentrate on dance until the end is near (when I realized nationals is about three months away). Between the Snowmageddon, kidney stone, and my boyfriend of two years ending things, I haven't had mych time to focus on dance.

Reel and hornpipe steps are really agreeing with me. I love the quickness and sharpness of the reel (although sometimes I get carried away with the running steps). My favorite part of the hornpipe is that is seems slower than the treble jig. I am not rushing around, and I get to do lots of pretty moves on my toes. I am learning a new set to go with this pair, Drunken Gauger. It's treble jig timing, so when I do well at the Oireachtas this year and qualify for worlds (hehe), I don't have to learn and perfect a contrasting set in a couple months. That is assuming senior ladies keep reel and hornpipe from nationals. Don't even get me started with that...

Maple Academy recital and St. Patrick's Day Month
(because I have actually been dancing things in my absence...)
St. Patty's Month was quite eventful for me. My boyfriend ended things two weeks before St. Patrick's Day, and I'm quite glad that was the busiest time dance-wise for me. I didn't spend those first two weekends alone. The first was devoted to our school's dance recital, the second to Shamrockfest and two other performances (all in one day), and the third to one more random performance.
Shamrockfest was very wet and rainy. We didn't dance at our scheduled time, and after I left for another performance we ended up making up for it by dancing with the band Carbon Leaf.
I didn't do anything special on the actual St. Patrick's Day, other than go to my normal dance class. There were two performances at a pub in DC, but being that I was in class, it was rather impossible to attend.

I'm actually doing this in between doing back treble drills, my "resting" period so to say.

2010 feis preview:
CCE feis, May 30th (registered)
Old Dominion feis, June 19th (registered)
NANs, July 4th and 5th
Nation's Capital, July 24th
Delaware feis, August 8th
Baltimore feis, September 18th
Rhythm of Ireland feis, October 16th
Feis Culkin, November 7th
SROs, December 3rd-5th

Goals: Finish learning Drunken Gauger, perfect back trebles
Days till NANs: 69