Letter from Camp: Irish Dancing

Trying out shoe the donkey

Dear Mom and Dad:

Our last Sunday in Maghery was a banner day. We went to an oyster farm (but some of the other campers already told you about that), but we finally had one of the highlights of our time in Ireland: our Irish dancing class!! Irish dancing is really different from the other types of dance that we know, but we really enjoyed learning something that is so important to Irish culture. We were really lucky because we had two fantastic instructors: Mikaela and Karl, who are world-class dancers. Mikaela is a 2014 World Medalist! There are two different types of shoes that are used in Irish dancing: hard shoe (that kind of sound like tap shoes) and soft shoe. We learned a partner dance that is usually done with hard shoes and then a step combination.

Here are our thoughts about class!

Elena: The dance class was really funny! The best dancers, Karl and Mikaela, came to the cottage to teach us the typical irish dance. They were very nice and they explained to us all the movements slowly. Finally, we learnt everything about the arms, the corporal positions, and also, the steps. Then we danced all together. It was a very good experience for us. I’m waiting to have another class!

Javi Serrano: Yesterday we had a surprise before lunch. Two Irish dancers came to give us some dance lessons. Their names were Karl and Mikaela. I met them last year so I already knew them. Both of them are top Irish dancers and they have won several prizes. In fact, Mikaela had just spent a few days in London due to a competition. After having introduced ourselves we started with the first dance. It was very easy to learn because it only had one step. We did it in couples. It was so funny! Later, we began with another dance that was more difficult because it had more dance steps than the first one. We were practicing it for nearly half an hour. It was an amazing time!

 

Javi Nieto: The dance class was very good but I didn’t learn anything because I’m too bad at dancing but it was very funny even though I have forgotten it but I liked the Irish dance.

Mikaela and Karl were our teachers we started the class dancing in circle after that we danced with another person. When it finished we learnt Sevillanas.

Víctor Buitrago: On Sunday afternoon, we had an Irish dacing class in our house. The teachers were a girl called Mikaela and a boy called Karl. They were very polite and kind and they were World Class dancers. I was dancing very well, but as a whole, we were bad. We learned two dance steps, and we wee thing to learn them but, when the dancing class finished, I forgot it all in spite of that it was a very fun day. 

Víctor Camacho: It was very good because two professional dancers came. Their names were Mikaela and Karl. She is a world medalist in Irish dancing. They taught us the basic steps. One was in three-time in pairs and the other in four-time, but this step we did alone. It was easy but for some people was too difficult. It was so funny but unfortunately they had to go so we stayed dancing and practicing the steps. Later, Marta taught our Irish friends and us how to dance Sevillanas. It was funny but too difficult and I couldn’t do it.

Pablo: Yesterday we had a dancing class with two of the best dancers in Ireland. They were Mikaela and Karl, both very funny and kind. We started with the easiest steps, all of us took turns dancing and then we did it together while Calum recorded us.

Finally, they had to leave and we were practicing for a while. Later we started with Marta’s ‘Sevillanas’ class.

Testing out the crossback step!

Even thought we’re not world-class dancers like Mikaela and Karl, we were able to enjoy dancing. It doesn’t matter how good you are; it’s all about trying something new!

 

We can’t believe it’s already our last week here in Ireland! We’ll write again very soon!

 

Love,

 

The Older Campers of the Maghery Summer Course 2014