In March, our team of Melbourne-based Irish dancers from the Christine Ayres School hope to turn a dream into a reality, representing Australia at Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, the 2024 Irish Dancing World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
This World Championships campaign follows our success at the 2023 Australian National Championships where we brought home 5 National Ceili (team dancing) titles, including defending our 8 hand title for the 10th year in a row. We are now training hard, in the hopes of bringing that same success to the World stage.
Our school’s teams have previously won the World Championships three times, in 2012 and 2018, and we are the only Australian school to have ever won three world figure dancing titles. This year, we hope to send twelve dancers to compete in the 8 Hand Ceili competitions. These are highly prestigious and fiercely contested.
Irish dancing is both an elite sport and a fine art - requiring intensive training, enormous fitness and absolute precision, especially in team competitions. Our talented team comprises students, nurses, teachers and young professionals who will be training for 10-20 hours per week in addition to their work and study commitments, to ensure both teams are fit and step perfect for the World stage.
The opportunity to represent Melbourne and Australia in the 2024 Irish Dancing World Championships and bring this love of dance, our proud Irish culture and commitment to excellence to the world, is one we do not take for granted. For this team it represents a culmination of years of passion, dedication and hard work.
Naturally, a dream like this is not cheap and to make it a reality we are inviting our wider community to partner with us on this journey to Worlds. In particular we are seeking to subsidise the cost of flights for our dancers which currently sit at approx $2,300 AUD each.
We acknowledge for many, these are not buoyant financial times and every donation, no matter the size, will be greatly appreciated by the team.
On behalf of our team, teachers and the Christine Ayres school community, thank you for considering partnering with us on this exciting journey.
Míle buíochas.
The Christine Ayres World Championships Squad
Brianna Coyle, Bridie Berne, Darcy Lynch, Declan Weir, Erin Fenwick, Lachlan Stedman, Patrick Gigacz, Rose Berne, Sarah Watson, Sarah Whelan, Shannon Gore, Tristen Linder
Goodluck Tristen and team.