Having had such a wonderful dancing experience at the Dance Olympiad (Spain) in May 09, we all agreed that it would be great to do it again. The destination this time was The All Ireland Open Championships. With EADA’s approval, the trip was organized and a Friday evening saw the beginning of our next international dancing adventure.
The 2009 All Ireland Championships took place at The Dolmen Hotel in Carlow which is a picturesque, full of history town in the south-east of Ireland with the river Barrow flowing through it and plenty to see and do. 
The Dolmen Hotel provided the perfect setting for this event as it is situated on the banks of the river Barrow with luscious green grounds, easy access by road and plenty of parking. We arrived well in time and had a walk about the stunning grounds as our first championship, the Latin, was scheduled for Saturday evening.
Excitingly, we walked through the Dolmen’s wooden doors and were welcomed by a huge lobby beautifully decorated with a fabulous flower arrangement lit by candles. We were directed to the Ballroom Suite up a magnificent staircase to join the long queue of excited dancers and spectators waiting to delight and be entertained. As the doors opened, we step into an ample, bright and superbly decorated room which soon filled with eager dancing lovers and their families/supporters.
The first event of the evening, the Junior Open Latin championship, began and 25 couples representing Russia, Denmark, Holland, UK and Ireland took to the floor. The Amateur Open Ballroom and Senior events followed giving our Juniors a chance to watch some fabulous adult dancing. The atmosphere was exhilarating through the rounds and the audience was fantastic by cheering on for their couples all the way.
As the Open Junior Latin final was announced, an international line up came to the floor: 1 Russian, 1 Irish, 1 British and 3 Danish couples. What an excellent display of cheeky, lively, sensuous, passionate and energetic Cha-Chas, Sambas, Rumbas, Pasodobles & Jives we were all delighted with by these young dancers. We got to know them as they were introduced to us just before their final dance and what a great idea from the organiser to ask the spectators to put their hands together for them to thank them for their superb hard work at the end of their final. Soon after, the results were announced:
1. Artemiy & Marina Katashinskiy – Russia
2. Lasse Frederiksen & Christine Kragmann – Denmark
3. Søren Munk & Natalie Winter – Denmark
4. Geraint Heaney & Clara Roy – UK
5. Valerijs Borovojs & Inesa Orlova – Ireland
6. Mathias & Sille Husted Jespersen – Denmark
Next evening, Sunday, was the time for the Ballroom championship. As the previous day, the first event was the Junior Open Ballroom championship which started promptly with 22 couples taking to the floor from the same countries as in the Latin event. The Open Latin Amateur event followed them; what a fantastic show. The Junior Ballroom semi final saw 11 couples coming back to the floor. Having danced 4 out of their 5 dances, the countries they represented were called and cheered by the audience: 1 couple from Russian, 1 from UK, 1 from Denmark & 8 couples from Ireland (with the loudest cheer, of course). With great drive and determination these young talented dancers fought really hard for that highly sought place in the final.
The mood was electrifying as we awaited the announcement of the finalist. One by one 1 Russian, 1 UK, 1 Danish & 3 Irish couples were asked to come back to the floor and join this superb ballroom final. The support from the spectators was amazing and I am sure it was an inspiration to these Juniors who produced for us beautiful Waltzes, sharp Tangos, gliding Viennese Waltzes, elegantly fluid Foxtrots and lively Quicksteps.
Not long after, the results were announced:
1. Artemiy & Marina Katashinskiy – Russia
2. Geraint Heaney & Clara Roy – UK
3. Shaun Leen & Katie Vickers – Ireland
4. Valerijs Borovojs & Inesa Orlova – Ireland
5. David Lawes & Aisling Killeen – Ireland
6. Søren Munk & Natalie Winter – Denmark
For us, the All Ireland was another fantastic international dancing experience. The organisers run the event so well; the standard of dancing was amazing and the ambience was just unique. We had a great Irish welcome from everyone and thoroughly enjoyed being amongst people who loved their dancing so much.
Stephane Roy
Viewed 58454 times by 9763 viewers
Jane Hall’s Art of Dance
The pictures were completed over a period of 2 years, during which time Jane spent many hours watching ballroom dancers perform. “I spent a lot of time on the competition circuit,” she says, “and saw many of what are now the famous names perform, including Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, James and Ola Jordan and Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova. I was doing lots of sketching at this point, trying to figure out what would be the best poses to use, because I was aiming to capture the very essence of each dance in just one picture. And that meant choosing something elegant and timeless for the waltz, something saucy and cheeky for the Cha Cha Cha and something dramatic, striking and angular for the Argentine Tango.”
And what of the future? Will there be more dance pictures? “That’s a question I find quite hard to answer,” says Jane. “My ballroom teacher, Diane, passed away in January and we haven’t really done any dancing since then, although we’ll probably get back to it sometime in the future and that may inspire me to return to the theme. In the meantime, I’ve been turning my attention to paintings connected with the British seaside holiday – pictures of the ice creams, hot dogs, fish and chip shops and amusement arcades that are all around me in Great Yarmouth where I live. It’s a really fun subject and the work is going well, but putting my dance pictures together for my new website has reminded me just how much I loved painting them. In fact, an artist couldn’t ask for a better subject – dancing’s great to do and even better to paint.”
