Hopping Mad Irish Dancing Brighton

So it’s been two weeks since the Worlds/Europeans weekend and I’m very proud to inform you that we placed 7th in both our competitions!  We were only aiming for top ten so to come 7th is brilliant!

It was a fantastic weekend away.  Once we arrived very early on the Friday morning, we checked in and most of us were able to go to our rooms.  This was quickly followed by going to the pool and lying about for a while and enjoying a nice steam. We did some practice in the evening to just confirm we were all comfortable with the dance. 

Then Saturday arrived! Thankfully we weren’t dancing until 5.45pm, so we spent the day watching all the other dancers and faffing generally! We had another practice on the day just to help get rid of some of the nerves.  Once practiced we made the dash to shower and change into the dresses.  I’d already spent time ironing all our shawls and my OH spent time polishing 8 pairs of pomps ready for the stage! So dresses on, hair curled and multiple  trips to the bathroom, we were ready.  We got up on stage and danced our socks off!  Very nerve wrecking, but I planted an enormous smile on my face and we all relaxed and danced on.  That was just the Europeans!

We had the Sunday to ourselves, so some of us split and went to investigate more of the old part of Dusseldorf - only the old part was open as it was Easter weekend, the rest of us stayed to watch the grade feis.  We practiced our Cross reel a bit in the evening but nothing too exhausting. 

Monday rolled round and the nerves started to come back.  The Cross Reel was looming over us most of the day.  We did some easy practice, making sure we were all comfortable again.   Our time slot rolled round and we all lined up at the side of the stage with the other teams.  We danced second to last, which I’m not sure was a good thing or not. Either way we got up, smiled and danced our best. 

Unfortunately the only down side to this competition is they only place the top three teams.  So we had to wait until we were back in England to find out the official placing.  Other than that it was a brilliant weekend all round!