Preparing for Oireachtas

Oireachtas (oar-oct-iss): Western Regional Championships in Irish Step Dancing.

The Oireachtas is in November in Seattle, Washington. I'm super excited! I'm competing with an eight hand team as well as a sixteen hand team. It's going to be so much fun. There are only 33 days left until we're there competing! It's going to be challenging, but the experience will definitely be worth it.

On Friday, my sixteen hand team won first place at a local feis (fesh). I'm so happy and proud of us! We really worked together and pulled it off. We also competed the eight hand, but didn't place in that one. But I'm not discouraged. I know we still have some work to do. It definitely prepared us for the Oireachtas though.

One of our team members had injured her foot and was unable to dance. She'd been resting it up until that point, but it hurt too much for her to dance. So we had another girl fill in her spot for the eight hand. It was the first time I'd ever seen her cry -- she's such a strong girl. I felt really bad and told her not to worry about it. We weren't going to make her dance -- I wouldn't want her to dance on an already injured foot, which hurts a lot, and then possibly injure it more and never be able to dance again. That would kill her dreams. We were able to pull off the sixteen hand without her, which was bittersweet. I wish she'd been able to participate in it with us. But she'll be healed in time for Oireachtas, and that's the important thing.

This is a really good step for our team, and it's going to boost our confidence and technique I think. It was a good experience for us, and I can't wait to compete the sixteen hand in November!

I love Irish Dance so much, and I'm really grateful I have this opportunity to be experiencing something so strengthening and positive with an influential group of girls. I'm really grateful for my wonderful dance school, and for my dance teachers, Tina and Jo, who really build me up and push me to be the best dancer that I can be. I'm so blessed to be able to have this opportunity. I wouldn't give it up for the world.

If you've never seen Irish Dancing, I encourage you to Google it or look it up on YouTube or something. It's so much fun, and unique from all the other dance styles.

Wish us luck! We're going to be practicing hard these next few weeks.

May the luck o' the Irish be with you.

--Sadie