Mid-America Oireachtas 2018

We just returned from Louisville, Kentucky, where Christopher competed in his first Oireachtas! (Oh-rock-tuhs). It was a really cool experience and Chris kind of soaked in all the dancing. He danced great and went up against some really amazing dancers in his age group. On Sunday, Chris danced hornpipes and reel. He didn't get the recall (basically the third round) so he did not do his set dance but it was a great experience for him (and us) to get to see how a major dance competition works. In a nutshell, there are three judges and if you score in the top 50% of your age group you get recalled. For all of the boy age divisions, except Christopher's, there were fewer than 20 kids which means all of the dancers would be recalled. If there were more than 20 (in Christopher's case, there were 22), only 11 would get recalled. Chris was a little disappointed not to get recalled but we tried to help him keep perspective by letting him know that 9 of the 11 kids who recalled placed in the top 10 at Oireachtas last year. Also, he was the only kid who hadn't competed in an oireachtas before in his group. I mean, we didn't even know what oireachtas was this time last year! There were some incredible dancers who have been dancing for years! Although he was upset at first, he had a good attitude about it and recovered quickly. He told us he would be back next year in full force! Here are some of our dancing pictures...

We also watched a bunch of the older kids dance on Friday and it is fun to see how they have taken Chris under their wing. They all watched at the award ceremony on Friday as 5 of our dancers qualified for nationals and two of the older boys qualified for worlds!

We also went to the Louisville Slugger bat factory while we were there. It was such a cool tour and the boys loved seeing how they make professional wooden bats. Very cool stuff! I may have also taken a few swings myself...

 It was a great trip to a new city and a great dancing experience for Chris!