An Daire Academy of Irish Dance prepares for international competition

By THERESA HOGUE

Gazette-Times reporter

Standing with their arms stiffly held at their sides, a group of young women and girls faced a wall of mirrors at the Majestic Theatre and worked on their flying footwork, a blur of hopping and jumping so fast that each step blended into a fluid wave of motion.

On competition days, the young men and women of An Daire Academy of Irish Dance wear handmade, elaborately ornamented outfits. Their hair is worn, according to tradition, in tight ringlets. They dance to Celtic music, honoring a dance tradition that they - and generations of dancers before them - have kept alive for centuries in Ireland and America.

This year, a group of dancers from the An Daire Academy of Irish Dance are headed to Belfast, Northern Ireland in late March to compete in the Worlds Irish Dance Competition. Four teams from the school will be competing in Belfast, including eight members from the mid-valley. An Daire also teaches classes in the Portland area.

Jim Mueller, director and choreographer for An Daire Academy, said his figure choreography team was the first Oregon team to be named Western Regional champions when it won top honors at a competition in November.

"We've put together the most talented group possible," Mueller said.

The figure choreography performance was a dance depicting the San Patricios, the Irish Americans who chose to fight on the side of the Mexican Army during the Mexican American War. Some of the Irish and British judges who watched his team dance had not heard of the San Patricios, so the dance became an educational opportunity.

"It was gratifying to be able to share the American experiences of Irish immigrants," he said.

Mueller, who is Irish on his mother's side, began Irish dancing after college.

"It's such a unique dance form," he said, and added with a smile, "plus I thought the chicks would dig it."

That theory proved correct when he met his future wife in an Irish dance class.

He formed An Daire to share that love of dance with a new generation of students, naming it after the Gaelic word for "oak grove," because of all the little acorns in his class who will one day grow into might oaks.

"It was an appropriate symbol for what we wanted to build," he said.

Many of the mid-valley An Daire students have been involved in Irish dancing for years.

Eleven-year-old Sierra Ferber has never traveled out of the country before. She said that she's "really excited" at the prospect of dancing in Northern Ireland. Her friend Madison Caples, 9, has been Irish dancing for almost four years, inspired by a video of Irish dancers that she saw when she was in kindergarten.

"I like the costumes and the competition," she said. Although she's nervous when she first walks on stage, that feeling goes away once she starts dancing.

Erin Coen is the oldest of three siblings, and all of them are crazy about Irish dancing. Her 13-year-old brother, Tim, has competed in the solo dance portion of the Worlds Irish Dance Competition before, placing 10th. Erin became intrigued with Irish dancing after watching a performance of the film "Lord of the Dance" when she was 6.

"I liked the performance, how different it was, and how the dancers connected with the audience," she said.

Erin's sister Colleen also will be attending the competition, along with Hailey Souther, Erin Cohen and Kelsey Cohen.

For Erin, Irish dancing is the perfect way to celebrate her family's ancestry.

"It's always been our heritage," she said. "It's a huge part of our life."

For more information on An Daire, see www.andaire.org.