My name is Aideen and I am a 16 year old Graham Dance Company and Elite team member in ITW. Throughout the year we have been working on so many pieces in class for the upcoming competitions we had. In class we learned the choreography but our teachers give us the opportunity to add in bits of our own personalities and style to our dancing which I really enjoy.
At the start of the year we had dance platform which was a performance in the Helix Theatre as part of Dance Platform and then we had Perform Ireland in February which was also a non competitive opportunity to show people what we have been working on. I found it so helpful to perform our dances on stage with a crowd but with no stakes so we could learn from our mistakes to have everything perfect for competition. It’s also just so much fun to see other studios dances and meet up with friends from other studios.
After Christmas time we were straight focused on our trip to Disneyland Paris in March. We were taking part of the Take us to the Magic Competition in Paris and then we were dancing in the Disneyland parade. We had a good few dances competing in the competition we had two company pieces and three elite team pieces . We worked so hard for the months coming up to this, most of our rehearsals were at least two hours for the last few weeks to make sure our dances were perfect.
The competition in Paris was so much fun and it was so interesting to see other countries styles of dances as well. It was very different to the usual competitions we do in Ireland. We had so much fun and learned so much from the competition and we were so happy with how all of our pieces went. After we came home we kept working on our dances as we had another competition in April. Our next competition was the Aaron Dwyer Competition in t in Dublin. In this competition the elite team had two dances to compete and I had a solo and a duet with Farrah. All of our dances went really well, one of our group dances came 1st and one came 2nd and then my Solo came 3rd and our Duet also came 3rd. This was extremely successful and we were so happy with the outcome. It really showed how all of our hard work paid off.
I love competing as when you stand on the stage you get such a thrill and nothing compares to the excitement and adrenaline rush of dancing on a big stage in front of an audience. I love seeing everyone’s dances and the takes different studios have on styles and songs. One of my favourite parts is seeing other studios costumes and getting the chance to do some of the workshops and learn from the judges of the competition. It is so rewarding to see our dances do well in comp and see how all of our hard work was all worth it in the end.
Dancing requires so much skill and dedication and dance competitions are such a great time to see a huge group and very talented people comps together to showcase what they have been putting their blood sweat and tears in.
