The Great Britains 2004

a special report from Irish-Dancer

TURBULENT YEAR

We first went to the GB's back in the year 2000 at a time when our expectations were fairly low. Siobhan's teacher Eamonn had encouraged us to go, just to get the feel of a Major competition. He believed that it was worth entering just to gain experience, and what an experience it was! (see our report here)

That meant that this year was to be our 5th Brits, and things have changed quite a bit for us over the years in between, so is it still as exciting?

The simple answer is .............YES!

But there's a lot more to it than that. This year brought with it a special tension that we've never felt before. But to really understand, you'll need to know why!

This year has been a very turbulent year for both our Siobhán and her dancing school in general, and at one stage we even thought we might not get to the Brits at all. Way back in January Siobhan's teacher Eamonn, who had taken her over many years from a raw beginner to a recall at the Worlds, decided to call it a day. Our first class back after Christmas 2003 he announced that he was giving up teaching with immediate effect. You can imagine the impact that would have on the dancers! After a long discussion he recommended that we all continue dancing under his teaching partner, Karen McCamphill-Godfrey, who had qualified as a TCRG in 2003.
In particular Eamonn told me he felt that under Karen, Siobhán would be able to make the final breakthrough to the top of the pile.
So just in case you've been wondering that's how the Byrne-Godfrey Academy suddenly became the McCamphill-Godfrey Academy!

Of course such a change meant that people could leave without a ban, and some did. And for a while what was left of the school struggled to find its way, not sure if it was going to survive. Results at the normal feis were a little up and down for a while until a couple of months later when disaster struck at the Worlds. Siobhán failed to recall and we were shocked and worried.

After the Worlds, slowly but surely the results at "normal" feis began to improve again, with some minor glitches. Then before we knew it, it was time for us to go to Philadelphia for the North American's (see our American's report here). By the time we were due to fly out at the end of June, Karen was practically 9 months pregnant, and was having trouble getting around in class. In fact our last class before we flew was the last class Karen gave before the birth!

She was the only dancer from the school to make the trip but Siobhán was triumphant in the US, coming in 6th. Of course we were delighted!
We arrived home on Thursday and on the Sunday of the same week she went to, and won, the Maguire O'Shea Championship! It was looking as if Eamonn's predictions had been well founded. The following week came the British Nationals in Blackpool. Siobhán danced really well, or so we thought, but only just made the recall. In fact most of our dancers had worse results than expected. It was beginning to look like the school was cursed at the Major's. While we were there Karen's baby finally arrived (and she's beautiful!), so we didn't see Karen again for several weeks after of course. Without her input we didn't know what to think about the results.

And then suddenly we are looking at this years Brits with trepidation.......

would it happen again????

ANXIOUS MOMENTS

Not only was this another Major, but also the Secondary Qualifiers. If it followed the same pattern Siobhán was going to struggle to qualify. Her competition wasn't until the last day (Sunday) so we weren't travelling down until Saturday. The week leading up to the event was nail biting for us, and the rest of the school. Some of them went down for the first day, and we anxiously searched the web for their results. Eventually they began to trickle through on the McGahan Lees website Guestbook and the Voy forums first (see here for a list). Then at about 9.30 pm the full "official" results appeared on www.feisresults.com .

Great result for us as Tammy Dennis became our first qualifier. Thursday brought us another recall, a good result for the dancer in question. On Friday it was the turn of our other main chance for qualification. By 9.00 pm the web was going crazy with people pleading for results. 10 0'clock came and went, and nothing.......By 11.00 pm I decided it was time to log off as it looked like they weren't going to appear. We'd been on tenterhooks all night, and I assumed that they just hadn't been published to the web. We had to get an early night as we wanted to get down to Brean Sands early enough to support our last dancers competition. We were just going to bed when I thought I'd check one last time, it was 11.40 pm and I couldn't believe it........the results were there! Kristy Burgoine had qualified, and we raised a cheer to her in the house, before retiring to a very restless night's sleep!

The under 15 girls Line up

ARRIVING AT THE EVENT

Driving down to Brean Sands in the morning wasn't our usually cheerful trip. Of course we were delighted for the two girls who had qualified, as it meant that the curse might have lifted! But on the other hand if it wasn't then Siobhán might not be joining them. The pressure was on!

We got to the site just in time to see the second round of our last dancer's competition, and then waited for the recall to be called........sadly she missed the cut. Karen was nowhere to be seen as her baby hadn't been too well and she'd gone back to her B&B. we decided to hang around the halls for the rest of the day so that Siobhán could get as much practice in as she wanted, and just to let her soak in the atmosphere, which is still totally unique in the Irish dancing world. That's because Brean Sands is a tiny place, cut off from the outside world during the GB's. It's like disappearing into the Twilight Zone, a strange place where everyone you meet is involved with dancing and nothing else exists. I saw one long term feis dad pounce on a daily paper on Sunday morning, saying:

"I haven't a clue what's happened outside since we got here mid-week!"

As usual we bumped into our friends from McGahan Lees, and I'm not kidding but they seem to be EVERYWHERE! And what a noisy lot they are too! Mind you they've got a right to be, every one of their dancers qualified, and they already had one GB Champion when we arrived. While we were with them up popped GB Champion number 2! This time it was Siobhán's mate Stephen Brennan who took the accolade, and thoroughly deserved it was too!

Crowded hall for the U18 results

The McGL girls all waiting to cheer Stephen

Teacher Frances McGahan ADCRG watches as Stephen Brennan gets the Championship cup!

GETTING PREPARED

After the results we decided to get a decent meal with some friends and then early to bed for the 9.00 am start on Sunday. And as the dancers will know, 9.00am means be there by 8.00 am, which means up at 6.00 am for make up, hair, and a light breakfast to give you some energy!

Back at the B&B Siobhán got settled down, while I made sure the shoes were given the extra bit of TLC that is needed for such an auspicious occasion. I polished the shoes, removed the residue of old Duct tape and replaced it with new tape, and finally gave the buckles a polish with newspaper (it works, honest!).

Mum was a nervous wreck of course so got barely any sleep at all, and I've got to confess to waking several times myself, just to check that we weren't late! Siobhán was a bit unsettled too, and unusually for her got up in the morning without being chased 100 times! At 7.30 am we had a full cooked breakfast and straight after that we loaded up the car and set off for the hall.

We were one of the first there but it wasn't long before it began to fill up. No-one had heard what the start number for the Under 16 girls competition was going to be yet and we had our fingers crossed that Siobhán wasn't going to be up first for a change. It seemed like she had been on right at the start for every Major over the last couple of years, never getting a chance to get any real final practice in. I always think it's a great way to ease her nerves if she can spend 15 minutes hammering through her Heavy dances before settling down to any last minute make-up and wig adjustments (to be honest it settles Mum's nerves too!)
Then they announced the start number.........what a relief! Her number was 77 (that's two lucky 7's!) and they were starting at number 90. Siobhán would have ages to prepare herself, physically and mentally.

Suddenly we realised that Siobhan's closest friend Izzy Yorke was practically first on because she was number 2, making her third on stage. Fortunately there were some extras who weren't in the programme so she had a bit more time to get focussed.

We weren't sure if Karen was going to arrive, but then suddenly she appeared with her sister Katrina who had flown in especially to offer her support to Karen and her school. They then took Siobhán and her schoolfellow Kirsty off to do some warm-up work in the practice area by the bar.

DRESS DISASTER

We were standing chatting to Karen when suddenly Kirsty and her mum appeared in a right panic! "Can you help us" they pleaded........Kirsty was just about to line up for her first round and the zip on her dress had burst right open from top to bottom!. You can imagine how they must have felt. Kirsty's mum was in a real panic, and Kirsty just looked as though she was in shock, poor girl.

Fortunately, being an old hand at the Feis Dad role, I carry plenty of kit for such disasters, including needle and thread. It was too gloomy to see properly where we were, so we all rushed to the open door so we could get into the daylight.
While Mum threaded a needle, with the intent of sewing Kirsty into the dress for the rest of the day, I decided to take a look at the zip. The slider had actually pulled straight off of the bottom of one side of the zip, and was too small to go back on.

This looked like a job for the Swiss army knife!

First I wedged the sharp blade into the "jaws" of the zipper to open it up and then managed to get it to fit back over the zip. I then switched to the pliers, squeezing the "jaws" tightly over the teeth. It was stiff, but the zip did up and luckily it held. That saved a lot of sewing for Mum, who then stitched over the bittom of the zip to stop it coming undone again. I can't imagine what we must have looked like through the window, me on my knees with a large shiny knife, with my hands down the back of a young girls dress......anywhere else and I would have been arrested, but in the crazy world of Irish dancing, no-one even noticed!

RECALL OR NOT?

The first two rounds seem to fly past, Siobhán and Karen were happy with the way she'd danced, and were confident that she'd be well in to the recall. But you should never be too confident, and then we had to sit and wait for what seemed an eternity for the recall to be announced. This is when the tension begins to get to everyone. There are the First timers who are optimistically just hoping for a recall, and the ones who just missed last year thinking that this year should be different. Then there are the dancers like Siobhán, who usually expect to recall but have had a few knock backs in the year and there's just a niggling fear that it could go wrong.

As they started to read out number after number there were occasional screams of "YES!" from the girls and some audible sighs as Mum's all around relaxed, and began to breathe again. Kirsty was recalled, her first at a Major so she was delighted. Eventually Siobhan's number was also called and we could relax, that was one hurdle out of the way! We were pretty sure she would, but there are always things that can go wrong!

Everyone's sets were amazing and Siobhán really gave hers everything she had. She came off stage feeling good and we began to think that just maybe things would work out well after all. After she had danced she joined all of her dancing mates at the back of the hall, as they all began to unwind.

RESULTS TIME!

After two hours of waiting it was finally time for the Results!

Score after score were called out, and Siobhán's first score was better than we expected! The second was even better, and the third was good too. Instantly I added her scores together - 148 not bad! From where we were stood it was impossible to see all of the score board, so as they went back to the top and started calling out the totals I counted with my fingers each total of more than 148. Siobhan, Mum, and Karen were all smiling nervously and watching me count.

We were two thirds down and Siobhán was still 6th then a 148 was called, which for some reason I decided made her 7th rather than joint 6th, and then another higher number - so I made her 8th! A good place, and definitely a qualifier so we were delighted. As they began to call out the dancers results in order I realised I'd made a mistake, the 148 they had called was Siobhan's own score so she was actually 7th!

There were anxious moments all round as Izzy waited to see if she was also going to qualify, but I told her not to worry as she was bound to. Fortunately I was right, and we all cheered as relief took over.

When Siobhán appeared on stage her face said it all, she had a big grin from ear to ear. She also got a massive cheer from several parts of the hall which was nice.

Typically (and anyone who knows her will know what I mean!) Izzy somehow managed to get herself hidden behind a speaker leaving her proud dad scrabbling from side to side trying to find somewhere to catch a photo opportunity where he could actually include her in the photo!

Under 16 Line up, but 4th place had to leave!

QUALIFIERS

After the recall results the dancers left the stage, and they announced the Worlds qualifiers. The first name called was the delightful Ciara Sexton, new GB champ and also the current World Champion. Second up was.............Siobhán! She couldn't believe it, and none of us had realised it either. She was the second British dancer in the Championship, an utterly amazing and unexpected bonus!
The two of them stood at the front of the stage, both with big bright smiles, as they were joined by Charlotte Mason, Marianna Ryan, Sarah Murray, Laura Hawthorn, Becky Purnell, Izzy Yorke, Ainsley Brown, Zoe Hancox, and Jemma McSloy.

Irish-Dancer sends its Congratulations to all of the girls who qualified, to our friend Kirsty Dennis for her first recall at the GB's, and dancing so well, and to everyone else who took part to make the Under 16's such an exciting competition overall. The standard was so high that some of the girls who just missed out, particularly one from the Midlands, will certainly qualify at their Regionals instead.

We also send our biggest Congratulations to the other two qualifiers from the McCamphill-Godfrey Academy, Tammy Dennis and Kristy Burgoine, and look forward to several more at the Regional Oireachtas in a few weeks time

Eventually I got her to come in and get her dress off so we could go and eat. Karen said her goodbyes as she was going home with the baby to see daddy!

PARTY TIME

We had to rush our meal because Siobhán had made plans to party with her friends. Anybody who has been to the GB's before will know that they have some very good evening entertainment that usually starts about an hour after the results. However, this was Sunday, and most of the dancers had gone home, so we weren't convinced that there would be anything happening.

Back at the B&B we then had to wait for over an hour whilst Siobhán got ready, and we only left then when I threatened that we wouldn't go back if she wasn't ready soon! Done up to the nines, with a glittery poncho, she was ready to party! Back at Brean it looked like I'd been right. It was fairly empty compared to normal events, and there was just a disco playing. Still she found a gang of like minded friends and they all appeared to be enjoying parading around, dancing a little, and generally just chatting. Young musician Anthony Davis was there and as usual was soon deep in conversation with a gang of girls!

Our Siobhán also found a Scottish fan that she didn't know that she had! She was accosted in the arcade by a young chap, with a very broad Scottish accent crying:

"Oh my god, you're the girl with the website aren't you?"

Apparently most of the hits on this site are actually him constantly returning! He even produced his friends mobile and proceeded to play its ringtone. Imagine Siobhán's surprise when it turned out to be the Reel music you hear in the background when you first arrive at www.Irish-Dancer.co.uk! This made Siobhán somewhat of a minor celebrity amongst her other dancing friends of course ;0)

So a very special hello to our Scottish Friends!

PARTY AFTER ALL

As it turned out I had been wrong after all, as the stage was set up for an entertaining group calling themselves the Baha Beach Boys. Their set started with a collection of well performed Beach Boys covers which was enough to get the dancers on their feet. The lead singer then disappeared backstage only to reappear as Shaggy, complete with dreadlocks! Their rendition of "It wasn't me" was really well performed, and they soon had the crowd on their side.

The band then decided that they needed some backing dancers, the singer jumping off of the stage and grabbing the nearest likely candidates, one of whom was a young TCRG that we all know as Mary Teresa McHugh. Just how he persuaded the usually quiet and shy Mary Teresa to go up on stage I'll never know! ;0)

Once they were up on the stage he decided that he actually wanted pole dancers, which caused them both to bolt! After pleading with them to come back he got them dancing along with the band, and then it was time to join in the singing. This was when the effervescent Miss McHugh decided enough was enough, even for her, and so she made a quick exit!

Meanwhile another young, male TCRG was also strutting his stuff. I won't name the young man in question, as he might get a little embarrassed if he thinks everyone knows what he was up to in the amusement arcade! But I will tell you what he was doing, and if you know anyone who was still there on Sunday night then they'll fill you in on who it was! The TCRG in question was playing on the amusement arcade Dancing machine. I'm sure all the dancers know the one I mean. Nothing unusual in that I suppose, but he was on it for AGES taking on allcomers to challenge him in a dance off. As things progress the dancing gets quite frantic. He was surrounded by loads of dancers, and even they were amazed at just how much energy he had, he was like the Duracell TCRG!

In the end they had to set off the fire alarms to get us to leave! As the lights went up it was suddenly the very end of the GB's and the magic was gone. Yet again it was a good event for most, painful for some, and exhilarating for many.

See you there next year!