St. Patrick’s Day:
There’s More to It than You Would Think…
By Emily Coffman, Grade 10

My name is Emily Coffman, I am a fifteen year old sophomore in high school, and I am an Irish dancer. Every year, there is one day that an Irish dancer can always have to look forward to: St. Patrick’s Day. March 17, The Wearing O’ The Green, The Whole Sham-Rockin’ Shebang!

That is an Irish dancer’s time to shine. And shine we do. In my dance school, located in sunny Sarasota, Florida, each of us performs over 25 shows all across Sarasota County. We perform at retirement homes, club houses, pubs, restaurants--you name it, we’ve probably been there.

And although it is a ton of fun, there is a lot more work that goes into it than you would think. Sure, everyone loves having a good time, eating corn beef and cabbage and listening to those old Irish tunes, but for us, it’s much more.

Every year, starting in mid-January, we begin to practice for St. Patrick’s Day. And practice, and practice, and just when you begin to think you’ve really got it all down, you practice some more. Then, right at the beginning of March, the mayhem begins.

Like I said, we all perform at about 25 shows, but that’s only one group of us. There are about four groups, which makes a total of 100 shows only in Sarasota. When you think about it, 100 shows in 30 days means a very busy schedule!

For starters, we try to get to every show at least a half an hour early. Sometimes, we have shows literally back to back, so this isn’t always possible. But, after practicing for 2 months, we get to the show early and run through everything just one more time. This is after about 1 to 2 hours of getting ready beforehand, including putting on full stage makeup, curly wigs that weight about a pound, and making sure everything with your costume and dance shoes are in order.

Then, the fun finally starts. We get to perform! Our performances usually only last about a half an hour, or we have 2 fifteen minute performances. There are two styles of dance that we perform, each with two types within them. We do what is called hardshoe, which is most well known from Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance,” and softshoe, which is a lesser known type of Irish dance that does not make any noise. Within these two categories, there are solo and group dances. We mostly stick to group dances, but sometimes there will be a solo or two, and we like to mix it up between hardshoe and softshoe.

After performing about anywhere from 5 to 10 numbers, we take our final bows and leave the stage. Sometimes we go out to the audience and do what we call a “meet-n-greet,” but most of the time, we run backstage, gather up our stuff, and head out to the car to rush over to the next show. So, the next time you are at a St. Patrick’s Day party and you see some performers there, you will know that behind the sparkling, fun facade of a performer lies a hardworking dedicated dancer.