Irish dancing championships sees Asia's quickest feet square-off in Hong Kong
The jigIrish dancing has grown in popularity ever since several wildly popular stage shows went on tour in the 1990s. Now Hong Kong has a global competition on its doorstep, writes Karen Pittar
As a young girl growing up on a small farm in County Carlow, Ireland, Helen Doyle's life was filled with traditional music and dance.
"My mother and my sisters, we all danced," Doyle says. "In my mother's time she did a lot of ceili [Irish group dancing], she tells stories of how friends and family would visit each other's homes on the weekends to dance and play Irish music. This was how they socialised back in the 1950s and '60s. My sisters and I would dance at weddings or at old people's homes to entertain. At all social occasions traditional music would fill the rooms and we would dance ceili such as The Walls of Limerick and Siege of Ennis. Good fun and great memories."
Doyle's love of Irish dance has never waned; she still dances and has passed this passion to her daughters, 11-year-old Aisling and Ciara, who is seven. Both have been learning Irish dancing for about three years.
I started learning when I was just three years old - it has been my passion for 34 years
"When we moved to Hong Kong eight years ago I wanted to ensure we introduced some Irish culture to our children. Learning the steps helps the girls understand the origin of Irish dancing, the part it plays and has played in life in Ireland," Doyle says. "It gives them an appreciation for Irish music and rhythm. Since their cousins learn dancing in Ireland, they have a common interest with them and can discuss dances, competitions and steps when they get together in the holidays."
For those who aren't quite sure what Irish dancing is like, think Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance show: high kicks and leaps, intricate, fast footwork, glittering costumes, Gaelic pipes and fiddles. Indeed, since Flatley and his talented troupe first hit the stage in the mid-1990s Irish dancing has taken the world by storm - and it's not just those with Irish heritage who are wholeheartedly embracing it.
Irish dance is increasingly popular globally, and this is something teacher Kathryn O'Connor-Barton is seeing in Asia.
"Thanks to the extraordinary success of shows such as Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, Celtic Tiger and Riverdance, interest in Irish dance is flourishing," she says. "It's estimated more than 250,000 people world-wide regularly attend lessons, whether step dancing [performed by individuals] or team dancing such as traditional ceili. I wanted to bring my experience into the studio in Hong Kong and teach students of every nationality or background who are interested in Irish dance."