Established on the foundations of a decade of professional dance partnership, IDanceDuo was created during the pandemic to provide us with the opportunity, as artists, to share our passion and creativity as far and wide as possible. In the beginning, the nature of IDanceDuo’s work was of virtual Irish dance performance, shared via social media platforms. Daily output from our accounts include feature video presentations, pictures and anecdotes of past performance experiences, interactive exchanges with our community of world-wide followers, as well as projects of various themes worked on through cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations. Within a week of posting, our first virtually launched project garnered over 111,000 views, an immense amount of written positive feedback, and a televised broadcast on CBC’s “Bright Spots” with Debra Arbec. The influx of positive reviews and appreciation towards our first virtual project encouraged us to pursue the opportunity to spread our joy of dancing in a live setting which lead to our grant funded “Garden Session” series of performances around the island of Montreal last summer.
Although IDanceDuo was only officially created during the Covid-19 pandemic, our partnership as dancers and dance teachers has existed for over 10 years. We are the top two Irish dance professionals in Quebec, having each individually amassed numerous competitive titles and prizes including Eastern Canadian Regional Champions and the highest ranking placements that a female and male québécois Irish dancer have ever achieved in the history of the World Championships of Irish Dancing. Upon retiring from competition, we both took up certified teaching positions at the Bernadette Short School of Irish Dancing, and pursued performative careers as troupe and lead dancers in various touring companies that travel the world. These have included performances all over Canada and the USA, Taiwan, Europe, Tahiti, New Zealand and on TransAtlantic and Northern European cruises. Our performance highlights include performing with Lord of the Dance in their Feet of Flames tour of Taiwan in December 2020, and being selected following a week long audition, as the first two Montreal born Irish dancers to perform onstage with Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Outside pandemic times, when home between tours, we thoroughly enjoy performing in local pubs, weddings and events such as le Festival Juste Pour Rire.
