Check out our instructors: Danielle · Rachel · Sandra (coming soon!) · Cormac · Natalie · Norah · Sarah
Danielle Enblom
Danielle’s interests as a dancer span many genres. From modern dance to salsa, hip hop to ballet, contact improvisation to Appalachian clogging and her latest endeavor and love, the American vernacular, Lindy Hop (swing dancing), her interests continue to expand and morph. Throughout the years and various studies, though, Irish dance has been her central focus. Dancing competitively for many years, Danielle honed the precision and technique that is the foundation of modern Irish step dancing; and, having spent much of her childhood at ceilis and sessions, she was given a strong sense of the tradition, community and soul behind the culture. Stepping away from the competitive world in her teenage years, Danielle went on to spend a year studying Irish music at University College Cork, in Ireland, where she earned a Diploma in Traditional Irish Music and studied under musicians including Connie O’Connell, Bobby Gardner and Matt Cranitch. It was during this year that she was reintroduced to Irish dancing, but this time in the form of old style step dancing, set dancing and sean nós (old style) dancing. In Cork Danielle had the pleasure of learning to dance the polka and slide sets of Sliabh Luachra from the legendary Peggy McTeggert as well as the old step dancing from Peggy’s childhood. An interest was sparked, and Danielle’s focus moved away from the modern step dancing and towards set dancing and sean nós dancing, and then on to other percussive forms of dance such as Cape Breton step dancing, American tap, Appalachian clogging and Quebecois step dancing.
Danielle’s current focus as both a performer and teacher includes all of these similar yet distinctly different traditions. Her latest collaboration with Boston-based choreographer Kieran Jordan is an appropriate example of this. The Sole Mates present a performance steeped in the various traditions and expand into more abstract movement and concepts with influence from modern dance. “Honoring traditions while continuing to probe them” as Kieran puts it, is a basis of this show and a basis of Danielle’s personal journey as a dancer.
Rachel Lew
Rachel took her first dance class at the age of 5 and has had a love for movement ever since. She has danced with Classical Ballet Academy, Ballet Minnesota and Scoil na dTri Irish Dance Academy. After earning her degree in Politic Science and Spanish Linguistics from the University of MN, Rachel worked at the MN State Capitol as a lobbyist with a firm advocating for the arts.
Rachel has been teaching Irish dance for more than 10 years and recently trained a student who placed in the top 50 at the 2010 World Championships. She has also taught ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop classes. In Los Angeles she spent 3 years as the Artistic Manger for the Hermosa/Redondo School of Dance and Music. There she managed 26 stage productions, including the full-length ballets of Sleeping Beauty and Alice in Wonderland, and directed staging, costume, prop and set design for the studio. She also directed three competitive dance teams in regional and national competitions.
Sandra Mullan (Coming soon to Rochester!)
Sandra is from London, England. She began her Irish dancing career at the tender age of 5 years old at the Deegan Academy and was brought up in the thriving Irish community there, where children were encouraged to either dance or play a traditional instrument and be proud of their rich cultural heritage.
She always loved competition and won her first Open Championship a year later, qualifying for the World Championships aged 9 - which meant the first of many trips to Ireland both as a solo and a team dancer. Whilst competition naturally required discipline, preparation and a determination to be successful, Sandra thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of Irish dancing and the wonderful camaraderie of belonging to a team, particularly when she joined the Griffin O'Loughlin Academy. She achieved considerable success at a regional, national and international level, always placing in the top 15 at the World Championships for solos and in the top three for figure or ceili dancing.
Sandra retired from competitive dancing to pursue her career in the law, but was drawn back in several years ago, whilst meeting up with old friends at the British Nationals. Most of her dancing peers were, by then teaching and before long, she had taken the T.C.R.G. examination herself and opened her own school ! Sandra's dancers have been extremely successful in competition and she believes that this is borne out of their enjoyment of classes, an emphasis on preparation and getting the 'basics' right first. Many of Sandra's students did not compete, but came to class for the sheer fun of learning something new, with their friends, in a supportive, friendly environment. Sandra loves teaching and seeing the joy on a child's face when they finally 'get it' - from the most simple steps, through to the most complex rhythms of heavy dancing.
Cormac O'Sé
Cormac was born in Dublin into an Irish Dancing family. His parents Aine and Seamus O’Sé had him growing up in the heart of Ireland’s dance, music, and cultural scene. He began taking accordion lessons from Gerry Nulty, a well known accordion player from Dublin at the age of 6. He both played and danced in numerous music shows, in corporate and concert events in Ireland, in Folk Festivals across Europe, and in travelling the US, doing Master Classes and Workshops with his family.
Cormac had a great Irish Dancing Career, placing at many World and All-Ireland Championships and winning several World and All-Ireland Ceilis. He was a dancer in the original performance of Riverdance with Michael Flatley and Jean Butler on worldwide television in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and went on to add 6 years touring the world with Riverdance – The Show, giving more than 2000 performances, across four continents to over two million people. He can be seen in the original film, Riverdance, The Show; in Riverdance at Radio City; in Riverdance, A Journe;y and in The Best of Riverdance.
Cormac became a T.C.R.G in 2006 and now lives in Minneapolis, MN as director of O’Shea Irish Dance – a 170 student strong dance school where he prepares students for competitive dancing and just for fun. He is furthermore excited to be carrying on the tradition of sharing the culture, having founded a cultural center in St. Paul, MN for the Celtic Arts of dance, music, arts and language, called The Celtic Junction. The center features rehearsal space and a concert venue primarily for traditional and acoustic music. It is also home to the Center for Irish Music, where he is a teacher of accordion.
He has been playing for feiseanna across the US and Canada for the past five years, including the 2009 National American Championships in Nashville. His sound engineering and stage experience has led him to produce numerous public, corporate and private music and dance events in both Ireland and the US, just a few of which have begun to be held at The Celtic Junction!
Natalie O'Shea
Natalie has always loved dance and performance but came to Irish Dance through Cormac when they toured with Riverdance, where she was in Lighting Production. She has a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Theater and has been a Freelance Director/ Designer (or mother) ever since.
Her professional theater experience includes: Resident Designer of the Theater Exchange, Minneapolis & Theater M, NY, NY. Field Rep for Vari*light, London, England trained in WholeHog & WYSIWYG; Assistant Production Director for the Minnesota Opera Company; Assistant Lighting Designer for the Guthrie Theater; Assistant Director to Julia Carey, Creative Director. NY School for Film and Television. Her teaching experience includes Art, Creative Dramatics and Character Study.
Natalie had early dance Training in ballet, tap & jazz at Pat Peare school of dance & for musical theater training. She continued her training with the St. Olaf College Dance Department; Ballet with Susan Bauer, Modern Dance with Judith Rock & Sherri Saterstrom; Tap with Toni Rizzo; Renaissance & International Folk Dance with Anne von Bibra. She continued with additional Ballet training at Minnesota Dance Theater and Irish Dance Training with Aine & Cormac O'Se.
Natalie is utilizing her theater and dance background in the creation of a new production for Steppingstone Theatre called "Get Up Your Irish".
Natalie is co-founder of The Celtic Junction, an arts center in Saint Paul.
Norah Rendell
Norah Rendell specialises in both performance and education of traditional music with a degree in music education from McGill University and an MA in Traditional Irish Music Performance from the University of Limerick.
In Canada, Norah developed numerous 'music for young children' programmes based on the methodologies of Orff and Kodaly and has given educational performances in primary schools both on historical European music and Canadian roots music. At the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (University of Limerick), Norah lectured in Ear, Notation and Theory, taught flute, whistle, and coached singing and instrumental ensembles. Norah has also given guest lectures and workshops at University College Cork in the Irish song tradition.
As a performer, Norah tours extensively as the lead vocalist and flautist of UK/Ireland based band, The Outside Track & locally with The Two Tap Trio.
Sarah Ann Weaver
Sarah Ann Weaver has a decade of teaching experience and nearly three decades of dancing experience. This includes intensive study of ballet and modern dance. She has danced with Oregon Festival Ballet Children's Company, Macalester's Dance Ensemble, appeared in Glass Opus and Sharon Varosh's choreography at various Twin City venues. Sarah currently teaches ballet, creative movement, and lyrical at 5 Star Dance Studio. She is a licensed classroom science teacher and works part-time for both Saint Paul Public Schools and the University of Minnesota. Sarah is thrilled to share the joy of movement and Irish tradition with your family.
