Ghillie Girl update

Hello Everyone,

I hope that the past two months have been good for all.  I wanted to give everyone an update on what our dancing feet have been up to.

We here have been very busy. The school year may be coming to an end; however, the dancing year is not. Irish Dancing is a year-round sport -- at least it is for our family.

I hope now to give everyone a little insight into the various competitions available. Throughout the calendar year, there are many competitions.   Most are considered to be "'local."  These are held around our state at different venues, others are held in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington, D.C., etc. Since we have come home from Ireland, we have done about two of these.

There are also regional competitions. This is when all of the dance schools in a particular region come together and compete. We dance in the region called the Mid Atlantic Region. Our regional competition is held in November, over Thanksgiving weekend and it is in Philadelphia.

There is also a National competition held every year in July. These competitions take place at different venues. It is open to all competitors in the North American dancing regions who qualify for it. We get the opportunity to travel around the United States and see lots of different places. This year, we will be traveling to Nashville, Tenn., over the Fourth of July weekend. I will be blogging from there and hope to share some interesting things we do.

There are also International competitions, such as the Worlds, that Shannon just went to in Ireland.

At this point, I should also introduce my other daughter, Erin.  She is 8 and dances as well. She is in second grade and has been dancing since kindergarten. At this point, she dances at all competitions, locally, regionally and nationally, in her age category which is Open Champion Under 9.

I will be blogging about both girls and sharing news as we compete. I hope this information will start you off into understanding a little bit more about the Irish dancing world.

Again, I hope all is well,

Blog soon, Sharon