Where ya from and where do ya dance??

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Permalink Reply by Michael Piotrowski on June 28, 2007 at 1:41pm

So... My name is Michael Piotrowski and I'm from Poland :) Well, actually my name is Michał but no one really bother to pronounce it properly :) I started dancing when I was in elementary school. I joined a Polish Folk group for kids and enjoyed that very much. Unfortunately me and my family moved so I had to drop my Polish dancing and singing stuff. In the age of 15 I started Irish dancing (which I know is soooo late but still quite early for all the Europeans 3,5 years ago) in a group called "Glendalough" in Katowice. In January 2005 I met Anne- Marie Cunningham whose student I became a year after :) I'm very active competitively and find myself quite successful so far. Through listening to Anne- Marie and training hard I want to keep it up.
My best dancing moment was a summer camp in Prague 2005 when I met AM Cunningham again, famous all over the diddlyi Shane McAvichney (hello Shane :D) and Kelley O'Boyle. Anyway I hope it'll change this summer, during Salzburg Summercamp :)
I'm dancing in a duo with Dorota Czajkowska and we are having gigs all over the Poland :)

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Permalink Reply by Paul @ Diddlyi on June 29, 2007 at 2:50pm

Hi there Silvia...why not put some of your favourite videos up on Diddlyi? It is easy to include the YouTube "embed" code here.

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Permalink Reply by Roisin Delaney on June 29, 2007 at 9:54pm

So ... My name is Róisín Delaney. known as Rosh , Róisin, the one with the curly hair , the one makes up her steps , the one who only dances slip jigs, the one who comes late and the one who has her head in the clouds. Dance with Shanana McAvana in RTNN. was there at the beginning , when it all started with the odd "shinannigans" or however you spell it - and have danced along ever since ! My dad´s irish and my mums from Glasgae. Live in and was born in munich. Nearly fninshed school - just one more week to go ! (expecting everyone to come to the party - this is the official intercontinental invitation to all!) and am hoping to dance dance dance through next year before i start studying medicine ! Don´t forget to drop by my page and say hi ... Róisin

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Kurz on June 30, 2007 at 1:11pm

hi... my name is Kimberly and I'm from Germany, I live in a city near Dortmund (for those who know where it is ;) ). I started with american tap dance when I was 6 and did this for 7 years. when I was 11 my teacher there told me and my group some irish steps (which she has learnt on a workshop) and it was so much fun for us so we searched for an irish dance teacher.
last year I was in the Salzburg Summercamp with Ann Marie Cunningham (hey Shane :D !).
now I'm dancing in Dortmund in a WIDA school and go to feiseanna. last weekend I was in Dublin to the CRDM all ireland championships.

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Permalink Reply by Oleg Safonov on June 30, 2007 at 1:49pm

Hi!
My name is Oleg Safonov. I'm from Odessa, Ukraine. My Irish dance practice started when I was 19. I had no Irish dance teachers only videoes of Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, Riverdance etc. and one gue who had the same practice of watching videoes of Irish dance shows and he tried to teach me in it. After 1 year I knew about traditional Irish dances and saw videos by Olive Hurly and "Celtic Feet" by Colin Dunne so I decided to practice and Traditional Irish Dancing. So, for now I want to visit a lot of people who are dancing and have some dance experience in Irish dances. And I want to meet all new friends to speak them not only about Irish dances - about all they want to speak about! Because, I'm not just a dancer, choreographer of Irish dances, MA of Economy, teacher of Economy in my Odessa National University named after I.I.Mechnikov and so on... Firstly, I'm a man who want to keep in my friends a good mood all the time. So, let's be a friends! ;-))

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Permalink Reply by Nicola Semple on June 30, 2007 at 3:45pm

Hi,
my name's Nicola and I started dancing in Munich with Tir Na Nog when I was 6. I'm now 13,and love irish dancing. My teachers are Shane and Mary,but mainly Shane as Mary teaches in Kaiserslaughtern now. This summer I'm doing 3 workshops,which will be great fun!! :) can't wait....kaiserslaughtern,salzburg and munich!! :):)
I'll see some people from diddlyi at some of them I'm sure...well,bye for now,
Nicola

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Permalink Reply by Magda on July 1, 2007 at 10:42pm

My name's Magda and I'm a dancer from Wroclaw, Poland. I started around three years ago and was taught by a girl from one of the local performance groups. A year after that I joined the group and am still dancing with them. Our biggest problem was that we never had a TCRG to teach us, as there were only three of them at the time in Poland, but we attended some workshops of Stephen Scariff, Sarah Clark and Anne-Marie Cunningham.
Everything changed last November, when we started having regular workshops with Kevin McCormack ADCRG from Dublin. Now we're a part of Anne-Marie Cunningham Dance Academy and can take part in events organised by An Comisiun :).
Up to now I only did grades exams, but I'm going to start competing and can't wait for the Vienna feis :).

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Permalink Reply by Georgia-Erin on July 2, 2007 at 1:38am

Hi my name is Georgia-Erin but most people call me Georgie/George! Im 14 years old and I live in New Zealand (if you know where that is), I go to the Kay-Hallissey school Irish dancers in Auckland. I started dancing when I was 4 but I did Ballet, Tap and jazz. I only started Irish last year and Im loving it!!
I've only competed once and I came 1st and 3rd In the over nine novice section. Its been harder for me because Im 14, tall and dancing with little kids! ha ha! but its still fine and as I said I LOVE it so......Im happy
The main things I like to do are: -Irish dancing
-Ride My pony
-Sleep <3
and thats it!! =)

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Permalink Reply by angela. on July 3, 2007 at 11:17am

heyy, i'm angela and i live in germany i dance with tir na nog my teachers are mary and shane. mary mostly since shane teaches in munich. i started dancing when i was like 10, soo been dancing for 5 years :]
there's no special story about how i started dancing. i just always was facinated by it, i remember in elemetary school i would always watch my best friend erika perform and i was like ohhhh i like it , lol. so then i joined :D
now, i just started to learn my first open dance. i dont really compete a lot, but i'm gonna start for this is my last year in europe :/ and i want to have the expireance. moving in the summer of '08, hopefully some where in the states.
well, thats it. hope to see some of you at some workshops and hopefully at some feis's.

cmmt the page ?
:)

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Permalink Reply by stephanie dunham on July 4, 2007 at 4:13am

sweet, so i'm the first american to reply to this, and like one of two on the site. i'm stephanie, i live in philadelphia in the united states. uhmm. i started dance from hearing about it from my older sister's good friend in about 1999. i'm 15 now, and i've had many amazing opportunities with dance, such as working with dancers from riverdance. i spend most of my time dancing, and if i'm not at practice, i'm doing drumline. i'm shockingly one of a few girls who does drumline, its a very different element than dance, since i'm used to being around alot of boys and girls and drumline is mostly boys. i train under 5 teachers, but 2 main ones. i go to the Cara school of irish dance. my main goals with dance is to qualify for worlds and to become a dance teacher to share the great tradition i've gotten to experience.

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Permalink Reply by Angelika Berber on July 4, 2007 at 11:53am

My name is Angelika, I am 25 and live in Munich, Germany. I started dancing "Irish tap" about 6 years ago. Yes I know it's not called that.
I joined a school with an Irish tap class tought by---a tap dancer. Little did I know.
After being taught wrong trebles (wrong in every possible way) and skip23s to Lotd "Gipsy" music for about 6 months (boring!) I got into a dance group that just did show dancing. Sadly didn't learn much there except for and treble and back (very important achievement!) and hop23s and 7s.
Did 2 workshops with Shane Ryan which made me realize....what I'm doing isn't what the people in Ireland are doing. What is a SlipJig? Why do I have to do my steps right and left? What are all these moves?
Finally, in April 2004 I joined up with Tir na Nog in Munich and had Mr McAvinchey teach me the Easy Reel (Terrifying! not that he was mean to me but I really felt I sucked...next thing he signed me up on the spot to do it at a competition. Competition? A feshawhat?).
At the moment I'm enjoying myself in the Intermediate level (with some weird Open step moves thrown in when Shane feels adventurous and we feel suicidal), but am on a 6 month (or so) break from dancing due to career steps that take up too much time. After the summer holidays I will try to remember my steps, how to lift my leg behind my ear and all the rest of it.
As a dancer I am obsessed with health, fitness, correct technique and knowing all about how the body works. It is a bit sad sometimes.
If I'm really crazy, I will try my TCRG exams in a few years time. I love teaching. At the moment, I can't even remember my Easy Reel. :)

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Permalink Reply by Andrea on July 4, 2007 at 11:31pm

Hi! My name is Andrea and I live in Germany near Duisburg. About nine years ago I met a group of people who were dancing at a concert. Anyhow they asked me to join in a ceili dance ( ok, they pushed me through!). It was so much fun. After that evening I joined there group. At that time they were dancing mostly Scottish Country Dances and a few Ceili Dances. After a few month there was an Irish Step Dancing workshop. A good bunch of poeple wanted to keep it on but the problem no constant teacher was around. A hobby group was found and we ended up more or less selfthaught, with just a few workshops. Through the workshops I realised I have learnd things wrong. In 2002 Sean Kilkenny started monthly workshops in Duisburg I visited regulary beside the hobby group. After 1 1/2 year it became a class and a part of the Kilkenny school. Unfortunatly there are no classes in Duisburg anymore. Now I´m dancing in their class in Utrecht. It means a lot of travelling though but it worth it.

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