Shelley Irish Dance Company Provides More Stage Experience
Shelley Irish Dance Company tryouts were last Saturday. This means I’ll now have company dance steps to learn on top of Feis and Oireachtas dances. It’s more of a help than a hindrance, however. Dancing with the company for the past two years has helped me a lot in my ability to compete at Feiseanna.
Probably my biggest problem when I get in front of the judges at a Feis is stage fright. There are a few different things I’ve learned to do that have helped me begin to overcome this. Dancing with this company helps a lot because the more I get on stage, the closer I get to conquering my stage fright. I’ve always had trouble with it. I’ll get on stage and my mind will freeze up. I know the steps like the back of my hand, but when it comes to performing them when it counts, I’ll forget what I’ve practiced just for a second or two and I lose the sequence. The horrible result is I end up trying to make up new choreography on the spot to fill in the blanks that the freeze-up created. That’s a lot of stress I prefer to avoid.
When I dance with the company, I have a lot more opportunities to perform in front of a lot more people. It helps me to have a clear mind on stage and off. It’s also a great opportunity to dance with a group rather than just solo. The chance to do so can be rare. Synchronizing steps to match other dancers is a whole new discipline on it’s own. One that I’ve come to enjoy immensely.
With all this in mind, I’m very much looking forward to another great year dancing with the Shelley Irish Dance Company.
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Hey, what great girls from both the Shelley School and The Crawford school of Irish Dance!
Ya, it’s a good one, huh? This photo was taken last year at the Scera Center for the Arts while our schools where still combined to form a company. The dance company was called The Rhythm of Ireland back then. We had a lot of fun dancing with the Crawford school.
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