Bluegrass Ceili Academy was crowned the inaugural Adult Mixed Four Hand champions this week in Nashville at the 2023 North American Irish Dance Championships. It’s the first national-level win for Lexington’s community-based Irish dance program.
“Our school motto is ‘Do What Makes Your Heart Sing’ and our dancers showed the judges and everyone in the room just how much dancing makes their hearts sing,” said Megan Moloney, the academy’s founder and director. “We didn’t put pressure on ourselves for this competition. Nashville is nearby, so we decided we would go, have fun and dance our best. We are thrilled that effort was enough to bring a national championship title back to Lexington.”
The North American championships feature dancers from the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2023 event was the largest ever held, with more that 4500 dancers signed up to compete in both solo and team competitions. Bluegrass Ceili Academy took three soloists and one four-person team to the championships.
The Adult Mixed Four Hand competition was added to the championships for the first time this year. The team was one of six entered in the event, dancing against schools from California, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Each team performed a regulation dance — Bluegrass Ceili danced the Four Hand Reel — and a five-judge panel scored the event. Overall, the Lexington team received three 1st place scores, as well as a 2nd and a 3rd. (High and low scores are dropped and results are based on the remaining scores.)
Putting Bluegrass Ceili Academy on the map
The national championship win follows a string of successes for the community-based program. In November 2022, a Bluegrass Ceili dancer won the adult traditional set competition at the Mid-America Oireachtas, a regional championship event. In 2021, Academy director Megan Moloney was named as one of 23 teachers worldwide to receive the Irish Dancing Magazine Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2021 and 2022, the school, which teaches in partnership with Lexington Parks and Recreation, was named a favorite dance studio in Lexington’s Best of the Bluegrass awards.
The school also recently received a Dance Development Fund Grant from An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, the international Irish dancing commission, to host 2023’s Céilí Mór Kentucky, a two-day Irish dance, music and language workshop in Lexington. Find out more about the July 21-22 event at this link.
The win was the second national championship title for Moloney, who coached an adult ladies ceili team from the D.C. area to a win in 2009.
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It’s the way we look at things, the experience we bring to the classroom, it’s building and giving back to our community, and living our mission by providing a supportive learning environment for dancers of all ages and skill levels.
Bluegrass Ceili offers Irish dance classes in Lexington in partnership with Artworks at the Carver School and Lexington Parks and Recreation. Registration for the 2023-24 class year will open in August.