The Driscoll School of Irish Dance

Today is the last class day until the start of the summer session!  Have a Happy Memorial Day weekend and we’ll see you the week of June 4th!

It’s not too late for summer registrations!  Enrollment is still being accepted – please contact Bridgid if you have any questions – driscolldancers@gmail.com or 913.982.7716

Registration is open for the Kansas City Feis!  See www.feisworx.com for registration info.  Anyone new to competing, please speak with Bridgid prior to signing up and she’ll let you know which competitions your dancer is ready for.

Welcome new students! 

We are currently accepting June enrollment for Pre-Beginner, New Beginner and Adult classes. 

The summer schedule, tuition and class descriptions can be found on the School page along with the enrollment form.  Enroll early to ensure your dancer’s spot in class! 

Summer Enrollment for Existing Students

The summer enrollment deadline has been pushed back to May 5th!  This is for all currently enrolled students and you will find the registration form on the Student page.  Please email or bring to class.  If you have questions on the new enrollment format and class descriptions, please ask!

Summer Workshops

The dates for summer workshops are as follows:  June 20th, July 18th, August 8th. 

Exact times will be determined when all summer enrollment forms are received.  So, please turn in your enrollments timely!

Upcoming Events

GOOD LUCK to all the Driscoll Dancers attending the Little Rock Feis, April 28th!  I’m sure you’ll have a blast!

It’s hard to believe that St. Patrick’s Day has already passed us by.  I think I’m having St. Patty’s withdrawl, already!  We had great showings all around town.  If you haven’t already friended us on facebook, please do!  There are lots of pictures and links to news coverage on KC Irish Dance’s facebook page!

Luckily, there’s still more to come…

MAR-24 Little Sister of the Poor 2:30

MAR-31 Sunrise Assisted Living 3:00

MAR-31 / APR-1 Driscoll Dancers will be performing as part of the Palm Sunday prosession at Good Shepherd Church.  5PM mass on Saturday / 10AM mass on Sunday

APR-5, 7, 9 – No Classes – Easter Break

APR-14 Wyandotte County Ethnic Festival - Performance time 2:30PM.  The event runs from 11:30AM-5:30PM at KCKCC Field House, 7250 State Ave., KCK.  We’ll have a table with some information – would anyone like to volunteer to man our table?

APR-15 Fiddles and Footwork – The KC Strings Advanced Chamber Ensember joins the Advanced Driscoll Dancers for an afternoon of Irish music and dance!  Plan to see stop by and check us out at the Irish Center!  The performance begins at 3:00PM.

APR-28 Little Rock Feis – Entries are now being accepted!

**A note to dancers and their parents – times noted are the performance time.  Dancers should arrive 1 hour prior.

**If you did not already RSVP to these events during the performance sign up period and would like to attend, please let Bridgid know at least one week prior to the performance date.  Dancers who did not get the Performance RSVP list should wait until they receive notification that they are ready for performances before volunteering to attend.

And finally…here are some pictures from the St. Patrick’s Day season!

I’ve got my green on and I’m ready for the next bunch of performances!  There are a few additional performances and appearances and the parade info is updated as well.  See you out there!

MAR-15 Santa Marta – 6:30PM

MAR-16 Look for Kiera from Rincé Revolution on KSHB Ch41 - 11:15AM

MAR-16 Vesper Hall, Blue Springs – 11:45AM

MAR-16 The Carlyle, Lee’s Summit – 6:30PM

MAR-17 ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Grab your coffee and watch for Driscoll Dancers on Fox 4 early morning show! 6:45-8AM

CHILREN’S MERCY

Dancers will be performing around 10AM

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE – update!

Driscoll Irish Dancers will be marching with our friends in the KS AOH and their fun firetruck again!  The parade starts at 33rd and Broadway – we will meet in front of Redemptorist church and Christo Rey school. We are letter I and are 9th in the first section of the parade!  Look for the teal    ARRIVE 10AM

DANCERS: Attire will be the same as last weekend – teal shirts, black bottoms (skirts, leggings, pants, etc – no short shorts!), tennis shoes.  Feel free to accessorize with green!  PARENTS: Please plan to march in the parade or have someone waiting at the finish at 43rd and Broadway, if it is not possible to walk with us.  The parade is 1.3 miles from start to finish and we will not be backtracking to our starting point.  No dancers will be dismissed until we see them matched up with their parents!

Rincé Revolution will be performing with the Kansas City Irish Fest’s float.  They are the very first float after the Honary Irish Woman of the year, Keli O’Neil!  We love the festival and are excited to be part of their St. Pat’s display!

For additional info about the parade, please check out www.kcirishparade.com

THE DUBLINER

Stop by the newly opened Dubliner in the Power and Light District!  Catherine from Rincé Revolution will be performing throughout the afternoon.

THE ELDERS HOOLIE

The Driscoll Dancers are very excited to attend this Kansas City favorite for their first time!  If you don’t already have your tickets, now is the time!  Click here to visit the Elders Hoolie facebook page. The dancers will perform at 8PM.

JAKE CAVANAUGH FUNDRAISER

The girls from Rincé Revolution will be out in Blue Springs partying with the family and friends of Jake Cavanaugh!  For information on this event, please visit Jake’s page. The dancers will perform at 7:30PM.

We’re so lucky that the parades weren’t today – this weather is yucky!  I had a great time with the kids in Brookside.  We definitely stood out in our bright teal shirts!  I’ve seen some great photos from our dancers performing after the parade in Lee’s Summit and from Rincé Revolution’s performance at the North Kansas City Snake Saturday parade.  It’s great to see our dancers all over town!

If you’ve seen us out and about and wish you could join, we’re now enrolling for April classes!  The registration form is available on the school page and you can always email if you have any questions – driscolldancers@gmail.com

Here are some places you can catch us this week! 

MAR-14 John Knox Village, Lee’s Summit – 11AM

MAR-14 State Street – 1PM

MAR-15 Santa Marta, Overland Park – 6:30PM

MAR-16 The Carlyle, Lee’s Summit – 6:30PM

MAR-17 ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!!

KANSAS CITY PARADE

Driscoll Irish Dancers will be marching with our friends in the KS AOH and their fun firetruck again!  The parade starts at 33rd and Broadway – we will meet in front of Redemptorist church and Christo Rey school.  Look for the teal  ARRIVE 10AM

DANCERS:  Attire will be the same as last weekend – teal shirts, black bottoms (skirts, leggings, pants, etc – no short shorts!), tennis shoes.  Feel free to accessorize with green!  PARENTS: Please plan to march in the parade or have someone waiting at the finish at 43rd and Broadway, if it is not possible to walk with us.  The parade is 1.3 miles from start to finish and we will not be backtracking to our starting point.  No dancers will be dismissed until we see them matched up with their parents!

Rincé Revolution will be performing with the Kansas City Irish Fest’s float.  We love the festival and are excited to be part of their St. Pat’s display!

For additional info about the parade, please check out www.kcirishparade.com

THE DUBLINER

Stop by the newly opened Dubliner in the Power and Light District!  Catherine from Rincé Revolution will be performing throughout the afternoon.

THE ELDERS HOOLIE

The Driscoll Dancers are very excited to attend this Kansas City favorite for their first time!  If you don’t already have your tickets, now is the time!  Click here to visit the Elders Hoolie facebook page. The dancers will perform at 8PM.

JAKE CAVANAUGH FUNDRAISER

The girls from Rincé Revolution will be out in Blue Springs partying with the family and friends of Jake Cavanaugh!  For information on this event, please visit Jake’s page. The dancers will perform at 7:30PM.

DSID had another great weekend with performances. The dancers enjoyed performing at Delmar Gardens for a very enthusiastic audience, indluding a very crazy parrot who yelled “Hi” very loudly every time the kids walked on stage! Miss Hailey ran the show beautifully and afforded me the opportunity to be in the audience, which I usually don’t get to do.

The busy schedule for this week is posted below along with info about the Brookside and Lee’s Summit Parades. See you out there!

MAR-6 Check out Miss Hailey on KSHB, 41 Action News, representing Rincé Revolution and DSID!  Recording mid-day!
MAR-6 Last class at Kansas City Ballet for this session! Starting enrollment for next session – session begins March 20th!

MAR-7 The Cheiftans perform at the Kauffman Center – 50 years and going strong!
MAR-7 Some of the Rincé girls will be in Blue Springs for a warmup event for the Jake Cavanaugh Fundraiser to be held on St. Patrick’s Day at the Blue Springs Elk Lodge. For more info on the fundraiser, please visit www.jakecavanaugh.com

MAR-8 The St. Pat’s Senior Ball at Redemptorist, hosted by the O’Neill Family. Dancers from Rincé Revolution and DSID will be present!  12:30PM

MAR-9 The final event for 2012 Irish Winterfest at the Irish museum! Come hear Colin Grant and Darren McMullen play their fun Irish tunes – you won’t be able to help yourself from dancing! All Rincé Revolution and DSID dancers are invited to attend along with their friends and families!  6:30PM

MAR-10 Snake Saturday, Brookside and Lee’s Summit St. Patrick’s Day Parades
SNAKE SATURDAY: Rincé Revolution dancers will be out on the streets along with Colin Grant and Darren McMullen. Sure to be a good time for anyone spending their time North of the River!
BROOKSIDE: Meet at 1PM at 65th and Brookside near the tennis courts (this is just South of the main street of shops in Brookside and East of Wornall) Look for a Firetruck that says Theills, NY and lots of guys with kilts. And, of course, our group of bright teal shirts!
LEE’S SUMMIT: Information will be posted shortly – waiting for confirmation from the parade coordinator.

DSID Parade Uniform – All dancers marching in the parade will wear their new parade shirts which are being distributed at class this week. Please wear black bottoms (shorts, leggings, yoga pants, skirt, etc) and sneakers. You may layer a long sleeved white or black shirt under the T-shirt if necessary. All snacks and water bottles should be in disposable containers.

Happy February 29th!  I hope you have a great Leap-2-3 Day!  If only we had class tonight, we could really take advantage of this once-every-four-year holiday dedicated to Leaping!!

For anyone looking for class info or students looking for the updated calendar, I apologize that the page links aren’t working right now!  Apparently the update I did last week wasn’t quite as successful as I thought…  Send me an email and I’ll pass along any missing info – driscolldancers@gmail.com

Lots of fun things going on this week as we LEAP in to March…

MAR – 1 The Snake Saturday Grand Marshal Dinner is tomorrow night at Finnegan’s Hall – hope you’ll be there to see the Rincé girls dance! 

MAR-2 Another night of Irish Winterfest at the Irish Center.  Come listen to Gerald Trimble and the Old World Celtic Sessions Group!

MAR-1 DSID performing at Delmar Gardens at 10:30AM

MAR-1 Gaelic Mass at Redemptorist 5PM

PS – Only 17 days until St. Patrick’s Day!!!

It’s been a long month away from the blog, due fully to the fact that WordPress had an upgrade and I am “code” illiterate, but I’m finally back!  And I feel like the St. Pat’s season is already underway!   Irish Winterfest was a great success, followed by the St. Louis Feis weekend with amazing results from all the DSID dancers in attendance.  You girls make me so proud!

This weekend…performance for the Girl Scouts “Thinking Day” and Riverdance!  I’m so excited to go see this show again and for many of my students to see it for the first time.  Even though I started before the Riverdance craze, it’s still near and dear to me – you can ask my sisters who clapped like a big dork when Jean Butler came on stage, on VHS none the less!

I’m off to my final night of training for my indoor triathlon on Sunday but I’ll leave you with some photos from Winterfest – thanks J for passing these along!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time spending Christmas with my husband’s family followed by New Year’s celebrations with my family.  The time just flies by so quickly and, however rushed the visits may be, it’s still great to see everyone and it makes me very thankful for all the great people in my life.

Getting back to dance is also very exciting to me!  I love the thought of starting fresh – a clean calendar full of blank pages, just waiting to be filled with future events, classes, vacations, competitions ….ok, so my calendar is actually filling up really fast!  So, to keep it stream lined, I’m scheduling time for “one thing”.  Rather than making a large New Year’s resolution that I’ll probably drop in a few weeks when I’m feeling like that calendar is taking over or when I’m just plain tired,  I’m planning just one thing to change.  That’s only ONE THING to aim for every week!  So… 

What is your “one thing” for Irish Dance in 2012?  It could be anything!  Maybe you aim to practice just one more time a week than you did before.  Or attend one more feis than you did last year.  Or do just one more stretchy ab in class than you did the last time (advanced girls, I know you love those!).  It’s just one thing!  Regardless of whether it makes you a World Champion, you can accomplish that one thing, push yourself a little harder and become a better, stronger dancer in the end.

I’ve enjoyed watching everyone advance and grow as dancers over the past year and I cannot wait to see how amazing you will be in 2012.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by.  I guess time flies when you’re having fun!  And lots of things to get through…

I had a great trip to Chicago for our regional Oireachtas – Congrats to Moira on dancing so well at her first Oireachtas!  We’re all very proud!

Christmas is right around the corner!  If you need help with your Christmas shopping, check out the DSID gear!  T-shirts, jackets and polos are now available for order.  Orders placed before December 12th will be delivered in time for Christmas.  There are two styles available – the DSID “feet” logo and the new “D” logo that matches the dresses!  Pictures of both styles are on the facebook page.

The calendar has been updated through August of 2012 – check it out!  The last class of the year is December 17th and we’ll resume classes January 5th.   Thursday classes will be adjusting and will be ON THE HOUR in 2012 – check out The School page for details.

There are also a lot of new classes being offered for 2012 for teens/adults, beginners and, new this year, pre-beginners.  Tell your friends!! 

CLASSES OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT IN 2012

Monday Beginner 5-6PM 

Thursday Pre-Beginner 5:30-6PM

Thursday Beginner 5-6PM

Saturday Beginner Noon – 1PM

Teens/Adults

Tuesday 7-8PM

Saturday 9-10AM