Who wants to go to Ireland in February

The Celtic Classic, Ireland February 2002 by Kathryn Christie

Didio Barrera was at my instructor's place in Durham, North Carolina for coaching the weekend I got back from The Celtic Classic in Ireland and asked me to write a piece about the competition from the pro-am spectator's point of view. He suggested talking about what I had learned and the differences between this competition in Ireland and U.S. competitions. He probably didn't think I would go on at this length, but writing about Ireland has been a great way to think about the experience. The main differences I experienced in Ireland in contrast to pro-am competitions in the U.S. were the age span, the great numbers of entries from the very young to the very old; the international nature of the event; and the atmosphere. I always come away from competitions in the U.S. stunned by the experience of watching quality dancing. The fabulous dancing in Ireland produced that same feeling, but the atmosphere felt different. I had the feeling of being in an open and inclusive environment. This came about probably because of the age span of the participants, the love of dance that produces camaraderie between competitors and spectators from all over the world, and the structure of the competition that had us eating and partying together.

Who wants to go to Ireland in February? That was the most common response when organizer Tommy Shaughnessy passed out the brochures for the Celtic Classic/Irish Open at the Yankee Classic last October. Well, my instructor, David Therrell, wanted to go (generations back, his family name was O'Therrell), and so did his student Ann Banes, who had gone a few years before with her father to see the family's origins. She canceled her annual ski trip and exchanged Colorado's dry cold for Ireland's wet and windy cold (which was not as cold or as wet as it was here in North Carolina the weekend we got back). I went along because I had not been to Ireland and am a dedicated spectator of ballroom competitions. The competition was wonderful, Ireland is beautiful, and the people are incredibly welcoming and friendly. Ann's plans for future competitions now include a repeat of Ireland, Barcelona in 2003 when The Mediterranean Open starts pro-am in its second year, and Hong Kong. If her reaction is any barometer, pro-am in Europe can only boom.

Before we went to Ireland, I emailed with organizer Ann Gibson in Tralee, County Kerry, where the competition was to be held at the Brandon Hotel and Conference Center. Ann had several recommendations: not trying to find Tralee in the dark because of the narrow unlit roads; making sure we were there for the welcoming Irish coffee party (where we were surprised to find that Irish coffee is served in a glass); and attending the famed going away party, which she said lasted all night and featured the guys doing River Dance at 4 a.m. before people went straight to the airport from the party. As it turned out, all of us did River Dance at 4 a.m., not just the guys.

Ann Banes planned extensive sight-seeing, which included driving from Shannon Airport to Cork the first day. Since David, the designated driver, didn't sleep on the plane, we jettisoned Cork, arriving in Tralee during the daylight after a gorgeous but somewhat harrowing drive on tiny roads where the shoulder was a hedge two inches from the left side of the car. Tommy told us that the pro-am competition had been compressed from two days to one. The events of September 11 had decreased attendance by the Americans, which made the pro-am group small, but probably even more congenial as a consequence. Tommy was a wonderful host, making sure everyone was happy with the arrangements and setting up side trips for the pro-am groups.

Since the pro-am competition had been moved to Friday, Thursday was freed up for sightseeing. We went to Killarney in the morning, returning in time for Ann and David to practice at the designated time, and Thursday night attended a formal dinner for the pro-am group and the judges. Ann Gibson's husband Frank sang and played the guitar. That was our first experience with how much the Irish like older American songs. Ten days later at breakfast in our hotel in Dublin, I was enraptured but not surprised to hear Elvis Presley. We talked some with the other pro-ams at the dinner, but the real bonding took place at the evening parties. The first three nights had get togethers in the Residents Lounge, a comfortable two-room bar. These were nice calm chatty sing-along parties. The fourth night was a spectacular Latin night sponsored by Tommy, Donnie Burns, and Giordano Vanone to launch their new Barcelona competition scheduled for this July. The highlight of that party was a flamenco performance, and then we danced until 4 a.m. The pro-ams danced with each other's students and instructors. I think this is pretty rare between studios in the U.S. My speciality at 4 a.m. for the two late night dance parties was leading Esther from Seattle in a rumba to the beautiful song "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. The final night was the famed all-night party, which was another dance party interspersed with roasts and games. Some people did have to leave to go the airport at 3 and 4a.m.; I lasted only as long as dancing was going on, until 5 or so; the hardy group moved on to the Residents Lounge and saw the sun rise. The sun does rise in Ireland on some days, but babies travel in strollers completely covered with plastic, all set for the gentle mist.

Ann and David took the sightseeing approach to the competition. They went out to the Dingle Peninsula and the Connor Pass on Saturday and had a great time in the mud, wind, and sleet. I took the ballroom approach and didn't go out of the hotel once the dancing started. Our seats were on the front row right against the beautiful and large permanent wood floor. I knew back in the States that I wouldn't be going sightseeing on Saturday because that's when the juniors were competing, but I was especially thrilled to see that Juliann Hough was dancing and no gorgeous peninsula or pass was going to make me miss seeing her. I saw Juliann, her brother Derek, and her partner Mark Ballas (Corky and Shirley Ballas's son) do a break dance routine in Miami when she was maybe 8 or 9. At 11 or 12, she is dancing in juniors and won the junior Latin. She is fabulous. I was disappointed that she didn't dance the next day in standard. She and Derek and Mark did dance at the after-hours parties, and Mark made it to the late (6 a.m.) round in the Residents Lounge playing the guitar.

The first time I saw kids dancing ballroom was at the Heritage in Asheville, North Carolina in 1999. Seeing them made me wonder what I thought I was doing and my first impulse was to quit. Those of us who discover ballroom dancing later in life just have to deal with that, though, and move on from there. It's really not that different from the first time I went to France and saw all the little kids there speaking French so much better than I ever would. But I'm still in awe of little Russian, or British, or Danish kids who get to learn when their muscles will soak up everything. That's my lament, and probably that of many of us who think we could have done it if only we had known about it earlier.

Juliann's brother Derek is fantastic too, but was having a slow day (a comment he made to someone in the hallway), and came in second in the youth Latin. He was really on the next night, and made it to the semi-finals in the amateur Latin. The amateur Latin, the Irish IDSF International Open Latin, was the highlight of the competition. About 5 Russian couples flew in for the day, choosing the Irish Open over a competition in Russia that weekend. The field of over 70 couples required 5 heats for the beginning rounds, which didn't include the couples who had a bye and didn't dance until after the dépechage round. Have you heard of a dépechage round? They used this for the amateur standard too, which also had a large field, over 90 couples. Couples who get eliminated after the first few rounds get a chance to dance again in the dépechage round and some of them are selected to dance in the next round.

I had gotten up early that morning to watch Anna Bezikova and Dimitri Timokhin practice. I was also interested to see Viktoria Franova and Klaus Kongsdal (Denmark, placed 2nd) in person after seeing them only on television the past few years. A few of the Americans behind me on Sunday night were saying that Viktoria and Klaus would win, but they switched to Russian when I turned around and indicated an interest in their conversation. These were all young people I associate with Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, who themselves had gone to the competition in Russia. One young woman in this group wore a dress for her competition that could have been Maria's and had her hair cut identically. Kristina Juel and her partner Peter Stokkebroe from Denmark came in 6^th. For her first round (they had a bye until after the dépechage round), Kristina wore a dress and black hose and black shoes that seemed like a copy of Anna's outfit, which was the same one Anna had worn for the Slovenian invitational Latin championship shown on A&E recently. (The two top Slovenian couples were not in Ireland.) When Anna and Dimitri were across the room, I was mesmerized by a Polish guy (Serguei Sourkov) who took third with his partner Agnieszka Anna Melnicka. Two Russian couples I have not seen on TV came in 4^th and 5^th. The awards ceremony for the Latin open was moved up so that the Russians could make it back to Dublin in time to catch their plane.

Speaking of mesmerizing, newly professional Kylie Jones and Jonathan Crossley won the show dance with a piece that turned from ballroom tango into an Argentine tango as Kylie went from a long to a short skirt. In the pro standard, Kylie and Jonathan took second. The American group was very happy to see Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova win. I was especially happy to see them in person for the first time because Jonathan had very kindly responded to my email inquiry about the music he and Katusha danced to in their breathtakingly beautiful Viennese waltz in the anniversary show at the Ohio Star Ball which I saw on PBS in February 2000. David and I used the song, "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" by R Kelly, for a Viennese showcase piece later that year.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, over 100 people attended lectures given by some of the adjudicators. The lectures were in the same room as the post-midnight dance parties and had a good-sized permanent wood floor on about 1/4 of the room. Donnie Burns had been visibly enraptured by the flamenco performance at the Latin party the night before, and used that as a springboard to talk about authenticity in dancing. John Kimmins, Caterina Arzenton, and Giordano Vanone talked about connection. Giordano Vanone, referred to by everyone as "Joe," is "the" coach for standard. I gathered that he had coached Caterina Arzenton and Augusto Schiavo when they were partners. If I had thought of it months earlier instead of just a week, David and I could maybe have had a lesson with him. Ann Gibson mentioned something about the possibility of a lesson with his student Domenico Soale, but that didn't happen. Domenico was probably practicing and getting his own coaching. He and his partner Gioia Cerasoli won the Irish IDSF International Open Standard with great style.

Sammy Stopford (Latin champion and the coach for Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather) talked about character and determination. Carol MacRaild taught us how we could do all the samba steps if we mastered the "silly walk." And Gorin Nordin demonstrated the importance of technique, detail, connection, and choreography in a short rumba routine by one of the couples he coaches. I paid more attention to the couple, Lindsay Muckle and Clive Uter, in the Latin the next night because of having seen them in the lecture and also because of sitting next to Gorin Nordin while they were dancing; he judged other parts of the competition but was writing the official report for the IDSF on the open Latin. Gorin was another person I had seen only on TV. In his case, it was a show in Miami judged like an ice-skating contest, where one couple danced at a time and then had to sit in the "hot box" with cameras on them while they heard their scores.

In the U.S., competitions often offer a single workshop by the couple doing the show. These were sit-down lectures along the lines of the ones at Blackpool. The half-hour length was perfect for maintaining attention and the speakers welcomed questions. The atmosphere was congenial and warm. One of the people who went to the lectures was a man David and Ann and I had eaten breakfast with. We sat down at a table with two British couples and learned during the meal that they had known each other for 40 years. The one couple competing in the over-50 Standard met in dancing school when they were young. They had taken a 27-year break to raise their children and now were back on the circuit. The other couple was there to cheer them on. It was the husband in the other couple who went to the lectures while his wife and the competing couple went to Killarney. The competing couple, David and Judith James, made it to the finals and came in 6^th in the over 50 Standard. David James pointed out Craig Draper and his partner Irina Chuprakova, who were eating breakfast at the table next to us with Anna and Dimitry. David James told us that since there is a strong resemblance between him and Craig Draper, the top amateur standard dancer in England now that Jonathan Crossley has turned pro, people often ask him if Craig is his son. So he just calls Craig his son whenever he sees him. Craig and Irina looked terrific and placed second in the amateur Standard.

Besides the more than 90 couples in the Irish IDSF International Open Standard, there were 50 in the over 35 Standard, 30 in the over 50 Standard, and 11 in the over 60 Standard. In the U.S., outside of USABDA competitions, very few amateurs compete except at the most international of the American competitions, such as the U.S. Dance Sport Championships in Miami in September, which has a large youth (under 21) field. But even in Miami, there is a narrow age range for the international dancers. At the Irish Open, the competition included juveniles up through over-60 seniors. On Sunday morning, there was a competition for young girls dancing with each other. This would be the equivalent of ballet recitals for little American girls. Boys who want to dance are rare and immediately snatched up to dance with talented little girls who can afford the lessons. Someone told me that one of the boys who danced in the junior category also stars in a British TV show called Brookside.

The pro-am part of the competition was pretty much the same as in the U.S., including American and International styles (the Americans did both and the Hong Kong pro-am participants just did International). There were no scholarship events, however, and no banks of videographers. There was a prohibition against private videotaping because someone was making a documentary about the competition. There were two accomplished still photographers, though. One of them was a local wedding photographer who had covered this competition since it began in 1999. Ann Banes did a great job in her first competition. Pam Butler with instructor Jonathan Roberts (who placed 3d with his partner Anna Trebunskaya in the professional Latin) traded firsts with Joan Goddard (with instructor Chris Johnston, who has family in Dublin) in the open gold. All the pro-am students looked like they were having a wonderful time.

As is the case with all the European competitions, the regular part of the Celtic Classic did not include American style. And because of the formal dinner for the pro-am group and the lectures, I missed the Old Time and Celtic Waltzing parts of the competition. Most of the general dancing was waltz and foxtrot and lots of people were doing the Celtic Waltz, which, as Tommy explained, is like Viennese except for closing the feet instead of crossing them. Traditional Irish dancing was a feature of the Irish team match introduction, and flamenco was part of the Spanish team introduction. A few of the other teams demonstrated their native dances too. However, we were all there for ballroom dancing and the astounding number of incredible dancers from so many different countries demonstrated what an international community ballroom dance is.

In most U.S. competitions (a wonderful exception is again the very international U.S. Dance Sport Championships in Miami in September), except for a few Italians and a growing number of Eastern Europeans, we do not get this rich international mix of people. Consequently, in the U.S., we wouldn't have much variety in a Parade of Countries. The Parade of Countries accompanying the Open Standard and the Open Latin included dancers from 35 countries. There were adjudicators from 13 countries. Nine of the countries competed in the international team matches. The international team match is something we don't see in the U.S. Each team can do an opening number such as a skit or dance to introduce their country and then the teams dance against each other dance by dance, all Standard. The skits ranged from hilarious to serious, planned to impromptu; the dancing was good, but the team competition itself was not as compelling for me as the individual competitions. But I don't make a very good cheerleader under any circumstances. For the most part, I sit and watch quietly but avidly and collect data. You can see some of the data in the table below, which shows the winners by country.

For those of you who might be interested in attending next year, the venue was terrific. The town of Tralee is charming, beautiful, and has lots of shops within walking distance of the competition hotel. The Brandon Hotel Leisure and Conference Center is an excellent facility. In addition to the enormous ballroom, the Residents Lounge (2 room bar for sing-along and chatting parties), and the lecture/party room with its wooden dance floor, there is a disco, a spa and gym, a nice restaurant, a good public bar that also serves tea, soup, and sandwiches, and a big dining room for the buffet breakfasts and dinners. The rooms were nice, though we didn't see any of the deluxe ones on the 5^th floor, which Ann Gibson said were very nice indeed.

The vendors were upstairs above the ballroom in 3 separate rooms. Gamba had a half-price sale; I was thrilled to get two pairs of shoes, court and Latin, for only 88 Euros. We had tea one day with Chris Cavanagh, the extremely nice Managing Director of Gamba. He said they will be doing a lot more with ballroom (Gamba is traditionally a ballet shoe company) and plan to become more of a presence in the U.S.

The Celtic Classic gets a rave vote from all the people I know who attended. Thank you to Ann Gibson and Tommy Shaughnessy for your generous hospitality.

Winners by Country

	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th

Irish IDSF International Open Standard	Italy	England	England	Germany	Italy	Italy
Irish Open Professional Standard	USA	England	Italy	Estonia	England	Italy
Senior Senior I Standard (Over 35)	Italy	Germany	Italy	Holland	Republic of Ireland	England
Senior Senior II Standard (Over 50)	Holland	Italy	Denmark	Germany	Italy	England
Celtic Senior III Standard (Over 60)	(sorry, I missed this)
Junior Standard	Norway	Russia	Italy	England	England	Ukraine
Celtic Open Youth Standard	Italy	Russia	England	Russia	Republic of Ireland	England
Juvenile Standard	Denmark	England	England	England	Finland	Northern Ireland
Amateur International Team Match	England	Denmark	Spain	Republic of Ireland	Finland	(only 5 teams)
Senior InternationalTeam Match	Germany	Holland	Republic of Ireland	Austria	Northern Ireland	England

Irish Open Professional Showdance	England	England	England	Italy	Denmark	Hong Kong

Irish IDSF International Open Latin	Russia	Denmark	Poland	Russia	Russia	Denmark
Irish Open Professional Latin	Lithuania	England	USA	Spain	England	France
Celtic Senior Latin	Spain	England	Belgium	Switzerland	England	Italy
Celtic Junior Latin	England	Russia	England	Sweden	Norway	USA
Celtic Open Youth Latin	Russia	England	USA	Russia	USA	Denmark
Celtic Juvenile Latin	Denmark	England	England	England	Northern Ireland	Finland