Ruth McKenna of Donegal, Ireland saw a space post-COVID for Irish dancers of all levels to come back together in one place. Stemming from a desire to foster an inclusive community and promote Irish culture, The Irish Dance Programme was born. Inspired by her touring experiences with Riverdance, Ruth aims to provide a comprehensive Irish dance education in-person and online, from beginner to pre-professional levels.
The programme has continued to grow in its first year, with over 10,000 followers on Instagram, specialised online members communities, and dancers who return for every single class. The Irish Dance Globe heard from Ruth about her first year of success and where she hopes to take the programme in the future.
What inspired you to start The Irish Dance Programme?
I saw a lot of people who wanted to learn Irish dance for the art and tradition but didn’t want to delve into the other side of Irish dancing. They wanted to immerse themselves in Irish culture in a positive, healthy way. I also saw an opening for community, which is now very big both online and in person, where, after COVID, we knew what it felt like to not be part of a community anymore.
So I felt that people were craving to get back to forming new communities and participate in a hobby that they did as a child or new hobbies that they wanted to start as an adult. Starting new hobbies as an adult is a really difficult thing, so I thought that having an Irish dance programme or starting something to inspire dancers would be a healthy way to build a community.
Let’s talk about your professional career. How did your touring experiences influence your decision to start an Irish dance-based business?
I joined the cast of Riverdance in 2015 after doing my Leaving Certificate exam when I was 18 years old. I did the Summer School, passed my audition, and then in 2016 I got my first tour at the start of the year. Being on tour and learning from those who had more experience has shown me that there’s so much more to Irish dancing than keeping your arms by your side or going to feis’ or competitions around the world.
There’s a whole other world of expression and beauty in the traditional music that we dance to. I feel that really shaped the type of dancer I am today. Without being a professional dancer and having toured the world, experiencing different cultures, different countries, different arenas, different theatres, performing to small audiences, performing to audiences of 80,000 people, that has all shaped the way that I am able to give back Irish dance education to people all over the world. I have the skills now to navigate what each type of person might be looking for, whether that be performance, competition, tradition, or just the history of Irish dance. It has helped me have a more well-rounded education on Irish dancing.
What makes IDP different from other Irish dance offerings?
It is very much community-focused to the core. Nobody dances for a specific dance school. It doesn’t matter about that. I just want to build a community of people who share similar interests. Those who want to get better at Irish dancing, want to begin Irish dancing or develop their Irish dancing style in a positive way. There also are very few platforms like The Irish Dance Programme that will have a bank of every single Irish dance possible.
As we gradually launch, it will become an online education platform for dancers to get any dance from beginner level to pre-professional level at their fingertips. This is a really good toolbox for dancers or people who are interested in Irish dance, as well as the history of Irish dance all over the world.
What are you striving to achieve with IDP?
I guess at the beginning of this journey, all I was striving to achieve was to make a dream come to life. To be able to choreograph material and create dances that I love, to the music that I love, and to share them with others. To inspire people and have them realise that there’s so much more to Irish dance than your basic, reels, jigs, heavy jigs, and hornpipes. You can do all those dances and have different choreography as well as arm movements and still be an Irish dancer.
What I’m striving for is to create a global community of people who love Irish dance. That is what I am to the core. That is what I’ve set out to do. I want people to exhale happiness, peace, and joy when they become part of the community in The Irish Dance Programme.
What goal makes you the most excited?
I think at the moment, the goal that I’m most excited about reaching is having a platform online. Something where people can log in, no matter where they are in the world, and access Irish dance education at supreme quality. Whether that’s for performance or your basic beginner’s reel. I’m most excited about providing this toolbox to people who may not be able to get that in their area or want to have it as an add-on to enhance their Irish dance journey. So I’m most excited about giving people that little toolbox so that they know that they’re on the right track.
Tell us more about how you’re creating a community with IDP.
At the beginning of this journey, we launched in-person classes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. How we developed the community was we had the same people showing up every single week. The classes were shared by word of mouth and members started bringing their friends, too. We’ve had a really positive response on social media and we have a community of dancers all over Ireland commenting on the videos saying that they would have loved to have been part of something like The Irish Dance Programme when they were dancing. Some of those people have actually travelled to Dublin to participate in our classes. So that has created, created a community of Irish dancers who may not live beside each other, but they travel and come to meet every single week for something that they love and enjoy.
The online community is something that we’ve definitely created over the past year, where we have gained over 10,000 followers, full of people who have a niche interest in Irish dance. We also have a community WhatsApp group for the in-person classes, which I absolutely love. I can directly ask our dancers and community questions about what they want from The Irish Dance Programme. I think it creates a more personal tie and exclusivity for our community by keeping active members in a small messaging platform so that I can communicate with them quickly.
What has the community response been like?
The response from the community has been nothing short of everything I could have ever dreamed of. To be honest, I’ve had such incredible stories of people who have come to these classes and said that these classes have helped their mental health and their physical health. They’ve been maybe going through a really difficult time, and they’ve come to me with the most beautiful stories. Talking about how Irish dance pulled them out of a bad place whether that be mental, physical, or something else. It has been super rewarding. I think that’s something that really inspires me to keep going.
We have a lot of repeat dancers as well. It’s coming on a year of our in-person classes, and these people have been there from the very first class. They’ve stuck with The Irish Dance Programme, stuck with the classes, and made friends throughout their journey. It’s been so beautiful to see friendships develop through a similar hobby, which is Irish dance.
I think that community is at the root of The Irish Dance Programme. It is not about me, it is not about one person, it is about all of us. Without them showing up every single week, it wouldn’t exist. Community is part of human nature. We need community for mental health. We need community to feel accepted in society and loved. So these community-based activities and dance classes, as well as a community-based online platform, are what have made The Irish Dance Programme so vibrant.
Are there any events coming up on the calendar?
This has been something that I have wanted from the very beginning of The Irish Dance Programme, and this was in the game plan. The goal was to have pre-professional or performance-style workshops and master classes for dancers who want to build a bridge between competition dancing and performance dancing, or for those who just want to learn performance-style Irish dance. The dancing style that you do with your feet is very different in shows than it is in competition, so you need to learn that skill, and nobody is teaching people that.
So that is the reason why I have these pre-professional/ performance-style workshops to guide dancers in the right direction. And it’s something that I wish I had when I was younger. So for me, this was a no-brainer for something that I felt there was a massive gap in the industry.
Keep up with The Irish Dance Programme on Instagram.
