Dancers wow crowd in California

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2013 (4472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brady Academy of Irish Dance’s Winnipeg division recently sent five of its students to the 2013 North American Irish Dance Championships in Anaheim, Calif., which ran July 3 to 7.

Carly Zelisney, 12, Ryleigh Anderson, 12, Meagan McDonald, 13, Devlin Brady, 14 and Emily Prenovault, 16, qualified for the event through the Western Canadian Regional Irish Dance Oireachtas in Calgary in October 2012.

At the North American championships, Anderson, Brady and Prenovault each received a “recall”, meaning they finished in the top 50% in their gender/age division.

“Five of them went for their first time and three of them were called back into the final round, which is really hard,” says Phil Brady, 45, a former Canadian, North American and Overseas champion Irish dancer who established the Brady Academy in Winnipeg in 1995.

“For example, in my daughter Devlin’s category there was 120 or so dancers, and she got a callback in the top half of that. Only three other dancers from Canada made it to that level. Most kids that go for their first time don’t even come near the top half for a couple years. I was delighted. A proud moment as a teacher and a proud moment as a dad.”

Brady says there were over 6,000 dancers at the competition, including dancers from Canada, the USA, Mexico, England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and of course, Ireland.

Prenovault, a St. Mary’s Academy student, started Irish dancing nine years ago, inspired to do so by a visit to the Celtic Ireland pavilion at Folklorama, where the Brady Academy performs annually. She says she loves Irish dance’s uniqueness, its physical demands and the music.

“I’m graduating next year and I have no intentions of stopping Irish dance,” Prenovault says. “I never want to stop competing. I know it will be really hard to continue through university but I’ll do the best I can to never really stop.”
The Brady Academy of Irish Dance performs at the Celtic Ireland pavilion August 4 to 10. For more information on the academy, visit bradyacademywinnipeg.com.