Irish Incognito.

I've mentioned it before, and I will mention it again; I LOVE ALL THINGS IRISH.

There are few holidays which I get excited about (okay, I am not apathetic towards celebrations, it is just there are only a few holidays which make me giddy enough to jump up and down)
Saint Patrick's Day is one of those holidays (along with Christmas, Easter and my personal fave, National Talk Like a Pirate Day). I love it because it is the Irish thing to do.


*disclaimer; I, Bella, am not really Irish. I might be like.0006% Irish, but the majority of me is Italian/Hungarian (+ a little English, French and Blackfoot Indian). However, I like to THINK I am Irish (/Jamaican/Korean...).


I've Irish step danced for the last 11 years. When I was about 7 years old, I saw a video of Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance and I obsessed (I am very, very good at obsessing.) about dancing like him (I ran around the house trying to do the fancy stuff he did). Conveniently enough my friend's mom ran an Irish dance studio just a couple roads down from us. My parents, who still describe themselves as ANTI-dance, trying to get me to stop fixating, signed me up for an 8 week summer sessions. They had hoped that would get it out of my system...

Well. No such thing occurred.

I've been going strong for years and still don't want to stop. Because of school, work and other aspects of my schedule I am dancing a lot less these day, but I did years of competing (small 'feises,' regional 'oireachtases' and larger international things like going to Ireland), shows, and even teaching younger kids classes.

Now I look back and laugh at Michael Flately in his 'feet of flames,' sparkly pants, face paint and sweaty, bare chest and say "HA! What a desecration to Irish culture..." But I, in part, owe finding what I love to him. *More ha...

Irish dancing is an amazing feeling. I love it. I frequently say that I do it because it is the closest thing I can get to flying without wings. I have done lots of other kinds of dance and for me, none of them even come close to how Irish makes me feel. Chin up, shoulders back, arms straight, toes pointing, waiting that 8 count before my feet start flying; there is NOTHING on earth like it.


So Happy Saint Patty's, my Irish (or not so Irish) friends!