06-11-2023 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 68
Solo competitions
require elaborate wigs,
sequined costumes and
spray tans.
nights and Falls Church on the weekends.
Shortly before major competitions, the dancers
rehearse four nights a week.
The studios are loud but casual. Morgan
and many of his students show up wearing
T-shirts and Under Armour shorts. They could
be heading to soccer practice were it not for the
shoes. Irish dance can be performed in both
soft shoes, which resemble ballet slippers with
laces, and hard shoes, with flexible split soles,
chunky heels and a rubber stopper on the end
that allows dancers to balance on their toes.
Each dancer executes both soft-shoe and
hard-shoe dances during a competition. There
are also small ensembles, known as four and
eight “in hand” dances, and a dance drama
category. During the 2022-2023 competition
cycle, Morgan McGrath students took home the
dance drama award at regional, continental and
world championships for their performance
featuring characters from the beloved Netflix
television series “Derry Girls.”
Solo competitions require elaborate wigs,
sequined costumes and spray tans, even for
olive-skinned girls like Izzie, who boasts
an Italian and Puerto Rican heritage. Her
competition dress is white with swirls of
rhinestones sewn into the seams. A black inset
on the bodice is marked with orange diamondshapes (black, white and orange being the
signature color of McGrath Morgan.) Even
though her hair is dark and long, she competes
wearing a giant dark bouffant bun wig.
“There’s nothing Irish about them,” said John
Cullinane, author of the book “Irish Dancing
Costumes: Their Origins and Evolution With
100 Years of Photographs, 1892-1992.” In an
interview with The New York Times, Cullinane
described costumes worn by girls as “fashion
creations” and those donned by young male
dancers as, “a cross between Michael Jackson
and a hotel porter.”
The only exceptions: “Some of them do
have Celtic embroidery on their costumes,”
Cullianane conceded, which is true of Izzie’s
dress, and has been true since the 1890s, when
the Gaelic League began organizing Irish dance
competitions as part of a quasi-political effort
to push back against English dominance.
Beginning around the 1960s, competing with
ringlet curls became all the rage. Girls would
sleep with their hair tied in rags, or use curlers
if they had them. By the 1980s, girls started
wearing wigs to avoid long sessions with the
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| CAPITAL STYLE | Summer 2023
Izzie wakes up as early as 4 a.m. on the days she competes to start getting ready.“I find it all very exciting,” she
said. Her mom helps her with hair and makeup and putting on“the big poofy dress.” PHOTOS BY AMY DAVIS
Izzie shows the bottom of her hard shoes
during a class taught by John Lawrence
Morgan at McGrath Morgan Academy of
Irish Dance.
hot iron. Wigs can also allow for more diversity
of natural hair types.
But Irish dancing likely never would have
taken off in North America were it not for the
1994 breakthrough of “Riverdance.” That year,
Ireland hosted the Eurovision Song Contest,
and during the interval, dancers Jean Butler
and Michael Flatley wowed the world with
their seven-minute performance. “Riverdance”
would go on to become one the most globally
popular touring productions in North America,
even though Flatley left the troupe in 1995
to form his own rival company, “Lord of the
Dance.”
Morgan, a former U.K. Irish dance champion,
toured with “Lord of Dance” from 2009 to
2012, the same year he began visiting Lauren
McGrath Dutton’s studio to offer workshops.
In 2017, the studio officially became Morgan
McGrath, and it’s been turning out champions
ever since.
Izzie wakes up as early as 4 a.m. on the days
she competes to start getting ready.
“I find it all very exciting,” she said. Her mom
helps her with hair and makeup and putting on
“the big poofy dress.”
“It’s gets me into battle mode. I’m like, ‘OK,
this is now. I have to be ready to do this.’”
Kendall, who wears a wig with long curly
hair rather than a bun, described Izzie’s style
as “very elegant.” She’s an excellent soft-shoe
dancer, said Kendall. “Very tight and precise.”
It doesn’t bother Izzie a bit that she’s not of
Irish descent. Some of her classmates are of
Asian and Russian heritage, for example. But
when they are all stepping in unison, none of
that matters.
“I love being with my dance friends and
my teachers,” Izzie said. “I really love coming
to dance because it’s like a family, and my
community.”
