The End of an Era

Earlier this week, my Irish dance teacher officially announced that she is moving away at the end of the month. She's not moving too far away, but far away enough that she won't be able to drive to Bellingham to teach our classes anymore. I'm sure we'll all keep in touch with her and see her periodically, but our time taking class from her is coming to an end.

When I first heard this news, it was hard for me to process what exactly it meant for me and what my future of Irish dancing will look like. There are still a lot of things I'm not sure about, but I think that right now it's important not to think about the bad things that might happen, but instead think about the good things that did happen.

When I first started Irish dancing in September 2011, I was terrified. I totally didn't want to do it (as is the way with me), but once I said I would try it, I couldn't back out. The first few months, there were just four of us, Isabelle, two sisters who are friends of ours and who we've known for many years, and myself. It was the best possible group. If there had been people who I didn't know, I would have been much more likely to quit early on. 

By the end of that year, we had three more girls who had joined our class, and we all had a bit more experience. At the end of that year, we did our first ever performances at The Leopold (a nursing home in Bellingham), and at the Bellingham Highland Games. It was scary, but fun. A few months later, we danced at Birch Bay State Park for the first time, on an old basketball court.

Over the summer, we took classes in both light and hard shoes. Our hardshoe dance that summer was a hornpipe I thought I'd never be able to do. Hardshoe dancing terrified me. I couldn't figure out how to do half of the moves, and the ones I could do I could only do at half the normal speed.

That next school year, our classes shifted a bit. We got to dance in the big studio, which was awesome. We combined with the class above us, meaning that we were dancing with Hailey, and Heidi, two great friends. We did both light and hardshoe, and we learned a lot of awesome steps.

For much of that year and the next, I felt somewhat inferior to many of the other students because they knew more steps than I did. Heidi, who had been in the class above, knew a lot of steps we hadn't learned, and she taught them to the other girls. I often felt like because I didn't spend time outside of class learning extra things, I wasn't as good of a dancer, and the attitudes of the other girls sometimes made that feeling stronger. As time has gone on, I've learned many of those steps, and I've also come to realize that knowing less steps doesn't make me a worse dancer. The amount of choreography you know isn't directly related to how good of a dancer you are: your form and sense rhythm are. 

I slowly got the hang of that hornpipe, and two reels began to help me build my hardshoe confidence. My form got a lot better, and I got a lot better at staying with the music and counting out steps. In March of that year, we were invited to dance at The Firehouse Performing Arts Center in Bellingham with Northwest Ballet Theater. We were actually the main attraction, and got to do a 20 minute performance piece. Around that time, we also danced at several nursing homes and similar places for St. Patrick's Day.

Summer that year was great too. We danced at the Highland Games again, doing three shows in one day, which was exhausting, as well as at the Northwest Ballet Academy spring recital. We also performed again at Birch Bay State Park with the band Celtic Roots. This year, they had built a new stage that we got to use, which was awesome. Summer classes that year were fun as always. Our hardshoe step was a set dance called St. Patrick's Day, which is one of my favorite dances. Our light show step was called the Duke reel, which is a long, but fun dance for six people.

The third year was our best. We were back in the small studio, but that was fine, since that was really our home. I've spent a lot of time in that space. We learned some great steps, including a very fun three hand that we did to the Adele song "Rolling in the Deep," that has to be my very favorite light shoe dance. We didn't learn as many hard shoe steps, and honestly, I still don't feel comfortable with the ones we did learn. I feel like it always takes me a while to really grasp the hardshoe dances, longer than most of the other students. 

I often felt inferior in those classes, for various reasons, but Heather, our fabulous teacher, was the saving grace. She knew each of us well, and knew our strength, weaknesses, and insecurities. She was always great and knowing when to correct a mistake, and when to let it slide. She understood that sometimes it took me longer to grasp a step than the other girls, and didn't make me feel bad about it, and she also knew that I was willing to work until I got it.

In December, we performed an Irish piece in the Nutcracker. It was our biggest performance ever, to the biggest audiences we've ever had. It was great. In January, we danced for the Burns Dinner, a Scottish banquet that happens every year to fund local Scottish heritage events. We were paid to dance there, another first for us. 

The Nutcracker at Mt. Baker Theater

In March, we danced a small piece in the Spring Dance Festival at The Firehouse, and also at a number of nursing homes for St. Patrick's Day. Then, we hosted an Irish Ceili, which was totally awesome. 

In June, we danced at the Highland Games and the Northwest Ballet recital. In August, we performed at the Whidbey Island Highland Games, which we were paid to do. For the third year, we performed at Birch Bay State Park on a beatiful summer day. A few days later, a handful of us went to Boundary Bay Brewery to dance in the Beer Garden with the band Gallowglass. It was spontaneous, but fun, and it was so much fun.

Bellingham Scottish Highland Games 2015

Over the summer, we had classes too. We learned a very cool hardshoe set dance called The Blackbird, which I am still woefully bad at, and a great lightshoe eight hand to St. Patrick's Day.

 Heather and I at Boundary Bay Brewery.

Every year of Irish dance has gotten better and better. It has gone from an hour a week that I was terrified to go to to a large part of my life and identity. I'm an Irish dancer. That's who I am. And that's due to Heather. She's leaving us now, and that's sad. It' sad for us to lose her, and I'm going to be a bit presumptuous and guess that it's hard for her to lose us.

Over the years, we've gone from being a group of students taking classes from a teacher to a group of performers, led from within by one of us. We are a performance group now, and more than anything I'll be sad to lose that piece of my life. That's not to say that's gone forever, or even that it's gone at all. Who knows what this year will bring. But whatever does happen, I'm so happy that I got to dance with Heather these last few years.

All of this is why I am sticking with Irish to the bitter end. With Heather leaving, some of the people in our class are seriously considering leaving for good. They say that Heather is Irish dance, and that without her, it's not worth it. 

But for me, it is worth it. I certainly love Heather and the time I get to spend with her. I am very sad to see Heather leave, and I'm nervous about what the future is going to bring, but giving up on Irish would be giving up on Heather. She's spent the last three years teaching us and preparing us for the dancing world. We know how to dance, we know how to communicate with other dancers, and we've learned her dance style very well, modeling our own styles after it. 

We also have so much more we can learn from this new teacher. I certainly wouldn't say that I've learned all that I can from Heather, but I know that I have a lot that I can learn from our new teacher. Giving up on Irish dancing would be putting all time and energy Heather has given to us to waste. I'm certainly not gong to do that.