1 minute read
Anna Real
Tapping Into Culture Dancing From Her Roots
Ballet, tap, jazz, and hip-hop are all different forms of dance. But a lesser-known and more intricate form of dance is Irish dancing. Coming from Ireland in the 1600s, Irish dancing is shown mostly at important family events or hooleys, which are Irish parties. Junior Anna Real is an Irish dancer and has been since she was seven or eight.
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Real began dancing ever since her grandfather, Charlie Wear, got her signed up. When she was younger, he would take her and her cousins to see the Order of Hibernians, which is an Irish organization, and Hooleys. They would see the Irish dancers and Real wanted to be one. Eventually, her mom signed her up and she has been an Irish dancer since then.
“I got into Irish dancing because my grandpa is really Irish,” Real said. “We would go there and we would see other Irish dancers and my grandpa would always tell my mom to sign me up and finally my mom caved in.”
Real dances with the company Craoi Na Tire. She does individual and group performances. The individual performances are normally for competitions and the group ones are for local events. She likes performing with the group because she likes the people in her company. She has also made friends all over the country from competitions, which she says is her favorite part of dancing.
Real has also competed in many dancing competitions in America, and has won a few of them. To keep competing, dancers must place first, second or third in order to “level up”. Throughout the competition, the dancers can only use the same dance for the duration of the event.
Real, being the only Irish dancer in her family, wants to keep dancing for as long as she can. She will dance at least until college, but after that, she does not know whether she will be able to keep up with it.
