Macaela at Worlds

Getting Ready - Macaela and Courtney

At Waterfront Hall - Macaela and Courtney

Ready for the soft shoe round

Macaela, Shannon, Jessie, Rosalie, Scott, Courtney and Christine

Action shots by the professional photographer

Thank you to Christine for submitting these photos from their trip to the World Championships in Belfast earlier this month.

More of Rosalie's Photos from Ireland



Tomas, Jessie and Macaela and families, with Courtney in Belfast

Jessie and Tomas at the Old Bushmills Distillery

Scenes from the city bus tour in Belfast, including Waterfront Hall (Worlds venue, top left); the Peace Wall (top right), and the Titanic Museum (center bottom)

At the Carrick-A-Rede rope swing bridge

Brave Jessie crossing the rope bridge!

Jessie, Tomas, Rosalie and Scott at the Giant's Causeway

Jessie and Tomas near the Giant's Causeway

Top left and bottom left: Jessie, Morgan, Shannon, Rosalie and Connie on the train from Belfast to Dublin. Right: Morgan and Jessie strolling the streets of Dublin

Left: Morgan, Jessie and Shannon. Top right: Morgan and Jessie. Bottom left: Scott, Jessie, Shannon, Morgan and Brian in Dublin

Here are more of the photos that Rosalie submitted; these were all taken during their time sightseeing before and after Jessie danced at Worlds. Thank you for sharing these, Rosalie!

Rosalie's Worlds Photos

The Worlds stage; Scott and Rosalie with Jessie

Courtney and Jessie; Jessie and Macaela

Jessie at her 2nd World Championships!

Jessie's professional photo collage

Shannon, Courtney and Tomas with Jessie and Morgan

Many thanks to Rosalie for taking time to submit lots of photos from their trip to the World Championships in Belfast. Above are a few highlights; several more photos from their sightseeing trips still to come.

Stephanie at Worlds

Stephanie at Van Eire 2012

Congratulations to Stephanie M who competed today in the Senior Ladies category at the World Championships in Belfast! Stephanie is the last of  5 NPIDA dancers who have been in Belfast this past week; today is the final day of competitions. No recall for Stephanie today, but we know she danced beautifully and we are all very proud of her! Congratulations Stephanie! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Thank you to Rosalie who passed along this info: "Last year at the awards ceremony at Worlds, Micheal Flatley said that only the top 1% of Irish dancers ever qualify for Worlds. He said that just by being at Worlds, you are already winners".

Weekend Worlds Recap from Courtney

Tomas and Courtntey before his first round today

Shannon and Tomas - one final practise yesterday

Jessie and Macaela after their 2nd round yesterday

Courtney says "All done; time for a Guinness" ;)

Thank you to Courtney for sending the above photos and this note from Belfast tonight:

It was a great weekend of dancing for the 4 dancers, Tomas, Shannon, Macaela and Jessie. Unfortunately no recalls but all 4 dancers made NPIDA proud by each giving 2 strong performances on the World's stage. The calibre of dancing was outstanding and I am so proud of the dancers for their hard work to get to where they are! All the dancers were lucky enough to get to warm up before their rounds with Liam, who was able to give them some last minute pointers and feedback to take to the stage!

All in all a wonderful 2 days of dancing, watching dancing, and spending time with friends! Oh and stalking Irish dance celebrities; Brogan, Julia, and John were like Hollywood movie stars!! In a word this is what each dancer thought of the 2012 World Irish Dance Championships:
Shannon: "Eye-opening"
Jessie: "Achievement"
Macaela: "Imagine"
Tomas: "Inspiring"
And I am very very "proud".

Good Luck Shannon and Tomas! *Updated

Tomas and Shannon at Van Eire Feis, February 2012

Update: Although I have not heard directly from Courtney, results posted online indicate that neither Shannon or Tomas recalled today. Any further updates about their day will be posted here. Congratulations to both Tomas and Shannon for the dedicated training and determination they have put towards this competition; NPIDA is so proud of you!


Next up at the World Championships from NPIDA is Stephanie, competing in Senior Ladies next Saturday, April 7th. Good luck Stephanie!


Good luck to Tomas and Shannon, who are competing today in Belfast in U-13 Boys and U-13 Girls respectively. Check back here later for updates about their day!

Good Luck Jessie and Macaela! *Update #2

Jessie and Macaela this morning (photo by Courtney)

Update #2: Christine has just updated her own blog with photos and a summary of the day. 

Click here: http://www.getjiggywithmac.blogspot.ca/

Updated: Although I have not heard directly from Courtney, results posted online indicate that neither Macaela or Jessie recalled today. Any updates from Courtney will be posted here promptly. Jessie and Macaela, congratulations on the dedication and hard work that brought you to Worlds; we're sure you danced beautifully and NPIDA is very proud of both of you! Also, good luck to Shannon and Tomas who are dancing tomorrow!

Jessie and Macaela are competing in Girls U-12 at the World Championships today. 143 competitors are registered in their group; 1/3 to a maximum of 50 will recall. Unlike the All-Irelands, there will only be an overall recall, without recalls for the individual soft and hard shoe rounds. No word on U-12 recalls yet, so stay tuned for updates from Courtney. Good luck girls!

Belfast Update From Courtney

Tomas, Jessie, Macaela and Shannon at practise in Belfast

Many thanks to Courtney who sent this photo and update from Belfast last night:

"Here are our four Worlds dancers dancing this weekend (Stephanie arrives early next week) at their first practice. Tomas, Macaela and Jessie arrived on Wednesday and Shannon and I arrived Thursday and went straight into practicing.  Our hotel, the Holiday Inn, has set up a wooden floor in one of their ballrooms for the dancers to practice on, as the venue is not available for practicing until the first day of competitions on Saturday!

They are super happy to be here, lots of smiles and laughs! Another practice on Friday for all four dancers and then Saturday is the big day for Jess and Mac! Looking forward to seeing the big beautiful stage that I competed on twice at the World's and seeing our NPIDA dancers shine like the stars that they are!!"

Don't forget to check Christine's blog for updates as well: www.getjiggywithmac.blogspot.com

GOOD LUCK IN BELFAST!

NPIDA's 2012 World Qualifiers at the Van Eire Feis in February 2012. Left to right: Jessie, Stephanie, Tomas, Shannon and Macaela

Our 5 World qualifiers are heading off to Belfast this week to compete at the 2012 World Championships! Good luck to Jessie, Macaela, Shannon, Tomas and Stephanie!

Here's when they dance:
Jessie and Macaela: Saturday March 31
Shannon and Tomas: Sunday April 1
Stephanie: Saturday April 7

Christine is planning to post to Macaela's blog "Get Jiggy With Mac" while in Belfast (originally created for Macaela's 2010 trip to the All Irelands). Here is a direct link: http://getjiggywithmac.blogspot.ca/

Thank you to Rosalie for submitting these photos taken in Richmond last night as 4 of the Worlds dancers got a "send-off" from their friends (not present: Stephanie).

Back row: Shannon, Catalina, Tomas and Morgan. Middle/front row: Jadyn, Jessie, Macaela, Emma (front) and Caitlin

Tomas, Nora, Shannon, Macaela and Jessie