PPR Recognizes Irish Heritage with Irish Dance Classes
Philadelphia Parks & Recreation is proud to offer an array of unique activities that reflect a variety of backgrounds and interests. One of these activities is Irish Dancing.
Riley Irish Dance has practiced at Lackman Playground in Northeast Philadelphia for the past year. The organization, which was started in 2010, is run by instructor Justina Leavesley, TCRG, and offers solo and traditional Ceili (group) dance classes for boys and girls ages four and up. The students learn both hard and soft shoe dances, and the program offers instruction from the novice all the way up to championship-level dancing. Lessons are year-round.
The group regularly participates in local and national competitions, which are called Fies (pronounced fesh) in the Irish Dance community. Last year the program took two girls to the national competition, and one placed 2nd while the other placed 5th. In addition to competitions, the kids also perform at several local events throughout the year. This year the kids performed at the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade, held on March 13, for the first time. On St. Patrick’s Day, the dancers will be performing at The Green Parrot in Newtown, PA and will be at the Neshaminy Mall Spring Fling on March 19.
According to Justina, Irish Dance is a fun but hard sport. It brings her great joy teaching the kids and seeing them master the difficult routines.
Lackman is not the only PPR facility that offers Irish Dance. Classes can also be found at Torresdale Playground, Palmer Playground, Cohocksink Recreation Center, and Fox Chase Recreation Center.