The sound of fiddles and flutes fill the conference rooms in upstairs Lakeside as the Elon Irish Dance Team begins its weekly practice.
The team is a small but close knit community made up of people from all ranges and skill levels.
Some members, like senior and co-president Sarah Dawkins, have been dancing since as early as 3 years old, while others like freshman Trudie Arling, have never done Irish dance before.
Arling first learned about the team at the club fair.
“I was walking one way and they were like, ‘Please join!’ and I said, ‘I will kind of try to be there’ and I came and it just stuck,” Arling said.
Arling is a dance science major with a background in ballet but has found the adjustment to Irish dance fairly smooth.
“Everyone’s pretty patient,” Arling said.
She said she has enjoyed broadening her horizons in the world of dance and getting to meet new people on the team.
Freshman Sarah Hinchey first joined the club because she knew it would be where she would find her people.
“Dance has been a huge thing in my life since I was 6, so to have something familiar at college was nice to go into,” Hinchey said.
Hinchey still dances competitively in addition to being part of the Elon Irish Dance Team and said the club is a good way to enjoy dance without having to think about the competitive aspect of it. The team usually performs at showcases hosted by other dance groups on campus such as Elon’s Finest, a hip-hop dance team.
Senior and co-president Madeleine Walsh also still dances competitively and also said the team is a good break from the competitive dance scene.Walsh said that before joining this team, the competitive Irish dance world had started to feel draining for her. However, since becoming a member, and seeing people pick up Irish dance again in college, or learn how to do it for the first time, she has felt a renewed excitement for the sport.
“Seeing the passion that they wanted to do it again or do it for the first time was really inspiring to me and it helped me find a passion for it again,” Walsh said.
The Irish dance world is very small, according to Dawkins, and many of the members of the club have found that they are connected in more ways than simply their love and passion for the sport.
Freshman Trudie Arling and Irish Dance Team co-president and senior Sarah Dawkins rehearse a dance Oct. 30 in Upstairs Lakeside.
“You know the other people's teachers and who they grew up with because it’s such a small world. Even though Madeleine’s from Maine, her teacher was one of my favorite judges at competitions,” Dawkins said.
The uniqueness of the sport has helped the team bond and create a strong sense of community within the club that provides an outlet for all of its members, Walsh said.
“If I’m stressed or tired or whatever I’ll just come here and I’ll dance with my friends and I’ll feel a million times better when I walk out,” Walsh said.
With the Elon Irish Dance Team, Walsh said she’s able to be more fun and loose, and she enjoys the collaborative environment of the club.
During its meeting, the team was trying to figure out the choreography for a new dance. While Walsh had already created the beginning of the dance, all of the members chimed in with feedback about the next moves in order to create an interesting and fun routine.
By the end of the meeting, the team had caught up with each other, shared gossip from the Irish dance world, relieved some stress and created a new dance routine to perform at events.