Craic On

By Eileen Dahill.

It started out as a street dance. Irish Dancers that I teach were invited to a birthday party. It was Teresa’s 21st birthday party last night and she wanted a street dance (and two more ear piercings). The ‘tarmac’ for this fun was the family driveway. Teresa has been either a dancer, performer, or teacher for my school for 18 years.

My mom is from Belfast and loves to dance. She jumped in on last nights fun for a dance called the ‘Cupid Shuffle’.

My Irish Dancers seemed a bit reluctant to dance! How could these girls who dance in front of 1000’s of people every year be…shy? There is no place to hide at a street dance so they looked intently at their cell phones. It was one of those rare dances that the boys outnumbered the girls. But the boys didn’t seem to mind.

I put my teacher game face on and said, “Really dancers, are you going to let these boys and girls steal your dance thunder!” But they had been plotting an Irish crash dance – and away they went with a fierce rake of reels!

It was a great craic to crash a street dance. The crowd loved the Irish Dancing. I think a few of the boys began to look at these wallflowers in a new light. It was an extra special night for Teresa besides being her 21st birthday. Since 2011 Teresa has been sick. She has missed some milestones in her life due to this mysterious illness that seemed to be slowly robbing her of her vitality. Our great dancer and now teacher dropped out of the University and began a series of tests. She was diagnosed with Lymes disease. It is transmitted to humans by a deer tick that lives in Minnesota. Now with a course of action Teresa seems more like her old self – except with two more ear piercings.