December McGovern Ceili Dancers of the Month

Each month the McGovern Ceili Dancers will be recognizing a special dancer that captures the spirit and essence of a good team mate and fellow dancer.

The requirements and qualifications to be considered for this demanding but honored award are as follows:

1. A positive attitude

2. Good attendance

3. Motivation/Willingness to learn

4. Regular practice

5. Dance progress/Accomplishments

6. Wearing dance attire/hair back

7. How the student relates to other students Congratulations to Sachi Wilson from MCD Ohio and Robin Beecham McIntire from MCD Indiana!

Sachi Wilson - MCD Ohio

Sachi is 12 years old and started dancing two years ago when she was in the Fifth grade.

When asked what got her interested in Irish dance she says "Irish dance had always seemed cool to me, even before I joined MCD. I first saw some Irish dancers at some local festival and remember thinking how pretty the dances were. This led me to want to do Irish dancing myself, so when I actually started, I was elated to learn all these new steps and happy to perform." Sachi became familiar with the McGover Ceili dancers as a result of being at a silent auction at her dad's work, there was a free year of Irish dance classes for sale, and her parents decided to bid on it. Luckily for us she won the auction, and came to dance with MCD, and we got her sister started soon after!

Her favourite thing about Irish dancing is doing shows all over the place and dancing in competitions. She loves performing! She also likes travelling to different places for competition and eating all sorts of new foods. The music itself is one of her other favourite things. She loves how the sounds can contrast with each other and create beautiful dancing music!

Sachi's favourite dance is the light jig because it is fun to do and the music is happy and pretty!

When performing for an audience she says she feels excited and anxious at the same time. Sometimes she will get nervous when she performs for a large group, but other than that she doesn't get too nervous.

Competitions, or Feile's can also be a souce of nervousness but this is what Sachi says about it - "When I compete, I feel happy and excited for the competition. Right before I go onstage, I have this nervous flutter, but as soon as I start dancing, it goes away, and I just concentrate on the steps."

Sachi is a very smart young lady so she has found that Irish dance has not really helped her too much in school, but it has helped her social life by meeting new people and making friends with other Irish dancers in school and in MCD.

One of the main reasons Sachi was chosen to be the MCD of the month is her calm and helpful presence in class. When needed I can call on Sachi to help other in her class who are haviing trouble getting the choregraphy or remembering their steps. She is a wonderful class helper full of patience, and kindness and she helps those dancers that are struggling progress.

Robin Beecham McIntire - MCD Indiana Robin is an adult dancer in our Indiana class, she is 37 years old and has been dancing since

May of 2013.

She got the Irish dancing through the movies. She found out about McGovern Ceili Dancers of Indiana by an ad in the local paper.

Her favorite thing about Irish dance is the speed and so it only makes sense that her favortie dance is the fast paced treble reel. She gets a scary sort of thrill when she performs and when she gives her first competition a shot, I suspect she will feel the same way. (That's a small hint Robin!) She believes that Irish dance has helped her be more brave about trying things that she may have avoided in the past.