Three of my friends in midair!

It's kind of funny how I got into Irish music and dance. An Irish-American guy I dated briefly took me an Irish music concert in a little pub and I paid attention to the wonderful sound of well-played Irish fiddle for the first time. I couldn't sit still to that lilting, lively, rhythmic music, nor could anyone else in the room. We tapped our feet, banged on the table, or clapped our hands in time - all the things that Irish music fans love to do. Well placed whoops puncutated particularly good turns of phrase and the applause at the end of each set of tunes was lively and sincere.

The Irish fellow mentioned that there was Irish dancing in town, but never took me. After we broke up, I still loved the music and decided that I had to learn the dances that went with it. Finally, I went to find the pub he mentioned, the Gandy Dancer. It was in an awful part of West Baltimore and sure didn't look like much from the outside. The paint was peeling, the sign small, and there were crack vials in the gutters nearby. I stepped through the door, and found myself in a dingy, dark, smoke-filled room of total strangers doing dances that looked nearly impossible. But I stayed because Frank Claudy and the Wild Geese were playing that wonderful, compelling music and there was some of the freshest Guiness in Baltimore on tap. After I kept coming back for two or three weeks, the dancers warmed up to me a bit and started teaching me to dance. I spent all of my Friday nights there for the next three years dancing there from 9 pm until closing at 2 am. The roomful of strangers eventually became a second home filled with friends. The Gandy Dancer finally closed, a victim of poor business practices and increased inner-city crime rates.

Since my start at the Gandy in 1992, I have studied Irish stepdancing, set dancing, and ceili dancing. Nowadays I play music as often as I dance, but I still help beginners learn Irish dance as a way of "paying forward" all the people that helped me to learn. I love Irish dance not because of my Irish heritage or the illusion of carrying on a tradition (modern Irish dance has very little to do with the traditions of old Ireland), but because it's fun, social, challenging, and I get to fly!