Learning the ins, outs, and step-abouts of Rye's Irish Step Dancing scene
Let's meet the moms!
Margaret Bagley (MB), Colleen Kiely Russo (CK), and Deirdre Rinaldi (DR)
How did your children get involved with Irish dancing?
MB: When I was six or seven months pregnant with my daughter in 2009, I was introduced to one of her future dance teachers, Erin Pender LeVine. When Erin learned I was planning to give my baby an Irish name, she said “You’re having a daughter and you’re going to name her Áine? She’s going to be one of my dancers.” (Erin had been a member of the cast of the Broadway production of Riverdance in the early 2000s, and went on to establish, with her partners, Kathleen Keady and Liam Harney, an Irish dancing school, Harney Pender Keady, or HPK, which is based in Stamford, CT, and Walpole, MA.) When Erin told me her studio was in Stamford, I said, “No way I’m driving to Stamford. You’re going to have to offer classes in Rye.” A few years later, she began offering beginner classes at the Rye Recreation Center. And I think that’s how most of us in Rye were introduced to HPK.
CK: Both of my girls started Irish dancing lessons when we lived in NYC (small world side note--I ran into Maggie's sister Adrienne-who I knew from college. She told me about an Irish dancing school on the Upper East Side and I enrolled my girls based on her recommendation!) The girls were 5 and 3 at the time and loved taking lessons, spending time with friends in class and performing! When I moved to Rye, I searched for Irish dancing classes in the area and was so happy to find Harney Pender Keady offering lessons at Rye Rec.
DR: When my kids were little and still hanging out at playgrounds, I saw HPK's post card at Rye Rec and the rest is history!
Do you have a background in dance yourself?
MB: My parents are Irish, and I grew up listening to traditional Irish music, so it was inevitable I’d end up in Irish dance as a kid at some point. I loved it. As an adult living in Manhattan, I took Irish dancing classes in the basement of an Irish pub, both for fitness, and for the pure joy of it. HPK offers an adult class now and I am determined to join them.
CK: I grew up in the Bronx and took Irish dancing lessons for several years. Both my parents were from Ireland and they really wanted their children to be exposed to Irish culture. My sister and I also took traditional Irish music lessons.
DR: Both my parents were also born in Ireland and wanted to instill in us a love of Irish culture. So my mom signed me up for Irish dancing and I loved it also! So when I saw Erin's e-mail about starting an adult class, I signed up right away! It's such a fun class with other moms of past and present dancers! I even competed again with some of my classmates as a team!
Is there a specific mission or goal behind the group beyond just learning dance?
MB: Besides teaching respect and appreciation for Irish dance and culture, HPK encourages their dancers to grow and develop—at their own pace—their motor skills, balance, coordination, memory, flexibility, and strength. The kids get a lot of feedback and encouragement, and develop a work ethic of, you will get out of anything in life what you put into it.
CK: I am incredibly impressed with the Irish dancing community. My older daughter recently joined the Irish dance team at Villanova University. It was a built-in network of friends! She knew many of the other club members through years of competition and performing! I recently attended a Collegiate Irish Dancing competition. It was so great to see so many dancers continuing to dance in college. For me, I loved seeing all the dancers I knew from all the years of competing. In fact, I loved catching up with the other dance moms!
How does Irish dancing impact the dancer beyond just the dance itself?
MB: There is a special bond between Irish dancers, and I believe the Rye crew will always share a special connection over the often-hilarious carpool rides, long hours of rehearsals, and the work all coming together for a performance. Beyond Rye and Stamford, a few of the Rye dancers also attend a sleep-away Irish Dance summer camp every year, and they look forward to seeing those dancers from all over throughout the year at local and regional competitions. One of HPK’s teachers is getting married soon, and rumor has it that the HPK kids will perform at the wedding.
CK: Totally agree-the girls have a special bond with their dance friends. They support each other in difficult times and are amazing cheerleaders too. I remember Rory fell during a National competition and came off the stage crying. At least 10 girls were there to embrace her and provide words of encouragement.
What is the most rewarding part of being involved in Irish dance?
MB: Seeing the result of all the hard work when they perform so skillfully and beautifully.
CK: So many rewarding aspects!! It's incredibly rewarding to attain goals and learn how to achieve results. My younger daughter, Rory, is such a hard worker and she loves to win. Watching her strive for excellence is great! She totally understands that success is only achieved through practice! Each year the HPK school honors the graduating seniors at a dinner dance. Each dancer delivers a speech summarizing their experience dancing. My older daughter delivered her speech last year and it was incredibly rewarding to hear her talk about the influence of her dance teachers and dance friends on her life. She recounted many funny memories of performances and competitions but her fondest memories were of car pools and dinners after competitions!
DR: Aside from the great network of friends my daughter has (and myself!), seeing her work hard and achieve goals that she sets for herself is very rewarding. She is learning skills that she will carry with her throughout her life. There have been disappointing outcomes but she learns from them, picks her head up, doesn't give up and works hard for the next one. Hard work pays off!
How do you see Irish dancing preserving culture and tradition in Rye?
MB: These kids are joining a long lineage of dancers, ensuring that traditional steps, music, and customs are passed down from one generation to the next. Through movement and music, Irish dance fosters a sense of pride and belonging to a global community.
CK: While Irish dancing has evolved, the tradition of community remains the same! My girls are dancing to the same tunes that I did and my mother and father did. That is keeping the culture alive and thriving!
Have you seen a growing interest in Irish dancing, or is it more of a niche passion?
MB: Irish dance at one time might have been considered niche outside of Ireland and the Irish diaspora. But since Riverdance and Lord of the Dance came out, it has become a worldwide phenomenon. You certainly don’t have to have Irish roots to enjoy it. (Just Google the phrase “Whimsical Skedaddler.”)
CK: It's so great to see so many countries represented at International Competitions. It's not just a sport in the USA and Ireland. It's truly an international passion!
Why the wigs and sparkly costumes?
MB: That has been an evolution, it certainly didn’t start out that way. But it’s all about catching the eye of the judges at competitions. Typically, two to three dancers compete on stage at the same time, and over time dancers (and their teachers) devised all kinds of strategies for standing out on stage, including their appearance. The wigs didn’t come into being until about the 1980s. Before then, girls wanted to have their hair in ringlets when they were dancing in their competition, because they believed the bouncing hair would help catch the eye of the judges. That meant they had to sleep with their hair in rollers, which was torturous. So someone came up with the idea of using wigs instead. The wigs became bigger and more elaborate, and tiaras and other head pieces were added, too. However, not every dancer wears them, they are pretty much always optional. My daughter hates them and only wears one occasionally, or when competing with a team.
CK: When my girls started Irish dancing, I said that I would never tan their legs, put make-up on, let them wear a wig, spray their hair a different color, spend thousands of dollars on a dress, buy a white dress or travel more than an hour for a competition. Well, I have done everything I said I would not do. In fact, I travel internationally several times a year with a white dress (that I spent thousands on) with a wig and a bag full of fake tan, color hair spray and more makeup than Sephora!
What has been your most memorable moment with the Irish Dance so far?
MB: Probably in November at the New England Regional Oireachtas, when my daughter’s céilí qualified for Worlds.
CK: I have so many amazing memories traveling and competing in competitions. We love arriving in a new city, dancing and then returning home with stories of our adventures. One memory that really resonates was in Belfast at the World Championships in 2022. Rory had qualified for the first time and watching her get on that stage with such confidence and determination was amazing. We also got to connect with our Irish cousins who are also dancers and spend time with family.
What do you hope these girls take away from their experience with Irish dancing?
MB: Lifelong friendships, fitness, artistry, creativity, and a deep connection to a part of Irish culture that is truly worldwide. And I really hope they will dance at each other’s weddings.
CK: MB-such a great response!! It's amazing exercise too--excellent core development and calf muscles!
DR: agree with both of you! Couldn't have said it better!
Ryemarkable Maura Fitzpatrick adds: My dancers are much younger than Margaret’s, Colleen’s, and Deirdre’s, but they have felt so welcomed and loved by those girls. They are great role models and care so much about the younger dancers at the school. I love our community in Rye and it’s been so amazing for Roisin in particular, and Nieve.
If someone were interested in getting involved, how would they start?
Beginner classes are offered on Wednesdays at the Rye Recreation Center. Details and schedule for both Rye, and the Stamford studio, are on hpkacademy.com
Irish dance term glossary:
Céilí - pronounced “KAY-lee.” An Irish dance party with group and pairs dancing.
Feis - pronounced “fesh.” An Irish dance competition.
Feiseanna - pronounced “FESH-ah-na.” Plural of feis.
Oireachtas - pronounced “Or-ROK-tuhs.” These are regional or national Irish dancing championships. Mid-Atlantic regionals are held in Philadelphia, and New England regionals are held in Hartford or Providence.
Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne - pronounced “Or-ROK-tuhs RIN-kuh na KREEN-yuh.” The yearly world championships of Irish dancing, which is in Dublin this year.
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