Adrienne Strong wants to show her 2-year-old son how to take on new challenges.
Dawn Dukes is getting to share the stage with her 8-year-old daughter.
And Hayley Platt, a professional entertainer who has worked at Disneyland Paris and Universal, just wants to continue doing what she loves most.
Their motivations differ, but the dancers at Gainesville Dance Academy are united by a common thread: their newfound love for dance and the opportunity to share their talents on St. Patrick’s Day.
With the Irish holiday on Monday, the Academy worked for weeks to perfect its routines in time for the shows it will perform across Gainesville to celebrate the holiday and Irish culture.
Gainesville Dance Academy has become a local hub for Irish dance and is known for its commitment to traditional and contemporary Irish dancing. Students come from all over North-Central Florida to train at the Academy, dedicating hours each week to mastering the intricate footwork and rhythms.
This year’s St. Patrick’s Day performances feature several hard shoe routines, showcasing the hard work and skills of the academy’s dancers and the vibrant culture of Irish dance.
Above: Watch the GDA dancers in action as they practice the “Treble Reel” for St. Patrick’s Day. (Fiona Smith/WUFT News)
That focus on both performance and tradition is at the heart of the studio’s mission — a vision brought to life by studio director and owner Sarah Ingley. In 2018, she opened the academy to share her love for Irish dance with the Gainesville community.
Ingley got into Irish step dancing after seeing Riverdance and was “captivated” by the dynamic performance. Since then, she has been dancing for over 25 years but has loved opening her own studio and teaching the next generation of Irish dancers.
Where to watch
Gainesville Dance Academy will offer four local performances on St. Patrick's Day:
- 3 p.m. at The Village, 8000 NW 27th Blvd.
- 4 p.m. at Mother’s North Pub and Grill, 5109 NW 39th Ave.
- 5:30 p.m. at Downtown Streetery, 18 SW 1st Ave.
- 7 p.m. at Oak Hammock, 5100 SW 25th Blvd.
“I'm a people person, and I especially love children. [Teaching] lets me have children in my life all week and all year, and I get a lot of satisfaction and meaning from that,” Ingley said. “I'm [also] sharing something I love and care about with either students who I'll train up for many years, or absolute strangers at a performance.”
Ingley’s love for Irish dancing and passion for teaching manifests itself in the work she produces and in her students, all of whom had nothing but positive things to say about their teacher.
Kayleigh Cunningham, 23, recently joined Gainesville Dance Academy to pick Irish dancing back up since having more free time after graduating from the University of Florida. She started Irish step dancing when she was 11 as a way to connect with her Irish heritage and culture that she had grown up with.
Despite only being at the Academy for three weeks, Cunningham has loved working with Ingley and appreciates the welcoming environment Ingley provides while teaching, noting that Ingley knows her stuff.
“Miss Sarah has been amazing so far. She made me feel super comfortable coming to class, and she's very encouraging,” Cunningham said. “She's great at watching so many different students at one time, noticing what someone is good at and what their strengths are, and then critiquing things they can work on more.”
Like Cunningham, Ingley and several others expressed how Irish step dancing allows them to connect more with their Irish heritages, no matter how far removed they are from it.
“I am Irish American, my middle name is after my maternal grandmother, Aileen,” Ingley said. “I was very close to my grandmother, and I associate [St. Patrick’s Day] and all things Irish with her.”
For some, being a part of Gainesville Dance Academy is more of an introduction to Irish culture and St. Patrick’s Day, but still something to look forward to.
“I'm from France, and it's not really something we celebrate that much,” said Flora Iff-Noël, a classics professor at UF. “I've always really liked Irish culture, and I've been kind of saving the day to go listen to some fiddle and Irish music. I'm excited to get to perform for this St. Patrick's.”
The Academy students are using this connection to Irish culture to fuel their St. Patrick’s Day performances. The dancers will perform in four different 30-minute shows around the Gainesville area, bringing the St. Patrick’s spirit to the community.
Platt, who has been a performer for many years and also worked in several theme parks, shared that the community aspect is the part she loves the most about performing for an audience.
“It's the guests that make [performing] magical. It's those little interactions,” she said. “Maybe it’s that small child who's never seen it and their eyes light up with wonder, like ‘How are they doing that?’ Or seeing the old man with his little Irish tam hat on, and they just look so excited and happy that you're there.”
As the routines for St. Patrick’s Day are in their final stages of cleaning and perfecting, the students of Gainesville Dance Academy hope their performances will not only showcase Irish dance but also create a shared moment of joy for audiences — whether they're familiar with Irish traditions or experiencing them for the first time.
“This is feel-good music. It is high energy movement. I definitely want people to leave entertained, happier and in a better mood than when they first came in,” Ingley said. “I also want people to be inspired [by our performances] to try dance themselves. I want people to know that dance is accessible to them, and that everyone who dances was once an absolute beginner. If you think you cannot dance, I'm very optimistic that our academy could prove you wrong.”