Thud thud thud. In the hallway of Second floor Butler Rachel Mill’s feet hit the ground like a rapid drumbeat. She had just demonstrated a basic Irish dance step with that brief bout of frenzied footwork. Most of you, like me before I wrote this article, probably only associate Irish dance with the ornate outfits and massive wigs the dancers wear. While the sometimes $2,000 dresses and the curly, bouncy wigs that require “billions upon billions of bobby pins” to hold in place and take anywhere from 20-40 minutes to put on are an essential part of this art form, there is so much more. After speaking with Irish dancers Sarah Fry ’19, Gabby Pacini ’17, and Rachel Mills ’16, I learned just how demanding Irish dance is, both physically and emotionally. Gabby Pacini affirmed that it requires a lot of endurance, commenting, “although we’re supposed to make it look easy, dancing for 5 minutes straight is exhausting.”

An Irish dancer has the opportunity to compete as a solo dancer, with competitions occurring year-round, or as part of a team that competes in seasonal competitions. A solo dancer must focus on establishing presence and working the whole stage, while, of course, crisply executing the quick steps. A team must then additionally take into account synchronization of positioning and lines. To accomplish all this requires lots and lots and lots of practice. Most girls go to hour and a half practices five days a week.

Irish dance also involves an emotional investment. Sarah feels that “the friendships on the team are deeper than typical friendships because these girls see every part of you,” support one another in devastating defeats and celebrate together in their triumphs. Rachel describes regionals as “an explosion of emotion,” a release of the intense pressure built up after working for nearly a year to get to that point.

Many of the girls have been dancing, and dancing with each other, for a long time. Gabby has been dancing for twelve years, first getting involved after seeing her sisters Irish dance. Sarah has been dancing for eight years, taking interest when she saw Gabby and her sisters dance at her preschool. Rachel first saw Irish dance at a St. Patrick’s Day school assembly in Kindergarten and told her mom she wanted to learn how to Irish dance. After two years of shuffling her feet around the house clumsily trying to mimic the steps, her mom realized she was serious about it and brought her to an Irish dance school. Rachel is still part of the same eight-person team she was with in 4^th grade. Two Marymount seniors, Caroline and Kimberly Garity helped coach their team to win the regionals that year and have been Rachel’s coaches ever since. Last year, the team, including Gabby Pacini, her sister Talia ’15, and Rachel placed 14^th in their age group at the world champions in Montreal, Canada.

Like any other sport, Irish dance involves long hours of practice, teamwork, and dedication. It also involves a great deal of passion, arguably more so than other sports. To wear those “weird and super painful” wigs for nearly 24 hours at competitions, or even spray paint your hair black to match the wig color as Sarah does, that is commitment. If you want to know even more about this rigorous art form and the world of Irish Dance, check out the trailer for the movie Jig, recommended by Rachel Mills herself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ4D2cg48uw