The 2014 Oireachtas

Round 1 number check

There's not much I have to say about my solo round from the Oireachtas. They most impressive thing was dancing soft shoe with no brace on for the first time since surgery. These unremarkable rounds led to a rather disappointing result that night with my lowest ever placement. I dropped drastically from placing in the upper 20s to the 34th. I suppose one could say that I made outstanding progress just by recalling at a major championship six months post-op, but I was really working toward a triumphant return by finally world qualifying. Not to mention that the southern senior lady group was incredibly tough this year, but that seems like I'm making excuses. The point is I was very disappointed but I'm getting over it and focusing on having fun while dancing.

My only solo awards picture. They focused heavily on the WQs.

By far, one of the most outstanding stories of the day was the switch from solos to teams. I was one of the last few senior lady sets to be danced. Meanwhile, the 15 and over girls eight hand competition started, despite senior ladies not having finished. My team was due to dance somewhere in the middle of rotation, but I couldn't make it. The stage managers let us dance last, fortunately. Unfortunately that still didn't leave me enough time, and I kept the competition waiting as I changed out of solo hair, make up, and costume. All the 15 and over girls four hand competitions were lined up, and I had to dash my way through them to meet my team side stage. I did not stop walking as I took my spot for the walk on, and our team took the stage! Thank God for the years of practice doing St. Patrick's Day. If we needed to review something as a team, we wouldn't have been half as successful while we danced. That team took seventh overall.

I was a member of two four hands as well, a girls and mixed four. The girls four danced decently and took 17th out of sixty teams. My mixed four hand did shockingly well. We didn't get many opportunities to dance together leading up to the Oireachtas, and we danced with the team that took first, so we thought we were done for. Only one one of our team members saw the recall list, and standing side stage at awards, we began to doubt that our number was really on the list. The closer the announcer got to first place, the more worried we became. We ended up taking fifth and getting a chance to be on the podium! It was a fantastic feeling!

Goals: Don't forget new dances on stage at the feis Sunday
Days till NANs:79