Ellis senior heads to Irish Dancing World Championships
Ellis girls are amazing dancers and athletes. Anna Muse, Class of 2014 is headed to London in April for the World Championships in Irish Dancing. She will join Irish dancers from around the world who qualified by winning regional and then national competitions.
This will be the third time that Anna has competed in World championships, which previously took her to Dublin and Belfast. Only 1% of Irish dancers successfully qualify for the World Championships.
Anna qualified for Worlds this year first at the North American National Championships in Anaheim, CA in July where she placed 18th out of 115 competitors. In November Anna placed 9th out of 117 competitors at the Midwestern Regional Championships in Grand Rapids, MI. According to her mother Jennifer Muse, “Irish dancing is Anna’s true passion. She practices every day and has steadily worked to improve her dancing and achieved her best result ever this year at the Midwestern Regional Championships.”
Irish Dancing is highly athletic and competitive. Irish dancers do not use their upper bodies to dance. They must carry their torsos very straight and upright with their arms held tightly to their sides. All movement is in the lower body, so these dancers have incredibly strong legs and abdominal muscles that they use to lift their legs in high kicks and when performing jumps. At each competition dancers compete in the first round in ghillies, a type of soft shoe that looks a bit like ballet slippers that lace around the ankles. Dancers who qualify from the first round and a second round done in hard shoes with fiber glass tips and heals are then recalled to perform a "set dance", also done in hard shoes. The dancers tap out an intricate rhythm to the beat of the music, often going up on their toes (like on pointe shoes in ballet) to tap out rhythms.
About the costumes: Anna wears a traditional Irish dancing costume, known as a "solo dress" for competition, and a long curly wig that matches her natural hair color. Her solo dress was made by a dressmaker in Ireland and is embellished with hundreds of Swarovski crystals that make it sparkle on stage. The crystals make the dress very heavy, thereby adding to the difficulty of the dance.
Congratulations, Anna. Best of luck to you in London!
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Anna qualified for Worlds this year first at the North American National Championships in Anaheim, CA in July where she placed 18th out of 115 competitors. In November Anna placed 9th out of 117 competitors at the Midwestern Regional Championships in Grand Rapids, MI. According to her mother Jennifer Muse, “Irish dancing is Anna’s true passion. She practices every day and has steadily worked to improve her dancing and achieved her best result ever this year at the Midwestern Regional Championships.”
Irish Dancing is highly athletic and competitive. Irish dancers do not use their upper bodies to dance. They must carry their torsos very straight and upright with their arms held tightly to their sides. All movement is in the lower body, so these dancers have incredibly strong legs and abdominal muscles that they use to lift their legs in high kicks and when performing jumps. At each competition dancers compete in the first round in ghillies, a type of soft shoe that looks a bit like ballet slippers that lace around the ankles. Dancers who qualify from the first round and a second round done in hard shoes with fiber glass tips and heals are then recalled to perform a "set dance", also done in hard shoes. The dancers tap out an intricate rhythm to the beat of the music, often going up on their toes (like on pointe shoes in ballet) to tap out rhythms.
About the costumes: Anna wears a traditional Irish dancing costume, known as a "solo dress" for competition, and a long curly wig that matches her natural hair color. Her solo dress was made by a dressmaker in Ireland and is embellished with hundreds of Swarovski crystals that make it sparkle on stage. The crystals make the dress very heavy, thereby adding to the difficulty of the dance.
Congratulations, Anna. Best of luck to you in London!
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