If you’re an Irish dancer who’s been online in the last couple of months, you’ve probably encountered the viral trailer for That’s So Feis, the new short film written by and starring Ali Hardiman, directed by Eileen Tracey. The story follows Gemma, a millennial woman whose life falls apart following a breakup, inspiring her to return to Irish dancing lessons to reclaim her sense of self.
In a fit of sadness after being dumped mid-wedding planning, Gemma is lying on her apartment floor, a pint of ice cream melting beside her, when she rediscovers a forgotten bin containing her old hard shoes. She had quit Irish dancing at seven years old because of a bad knee.
Cut to the next scene, and we see her towering over a group of young dancers at her new Irish dance class. Trainers squeak on the gym floor. Trebles are thrown. Stanley cups are everywhere. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and Irish dance feels like a meaningful fixture of the story, not just a caricature.
Ali was incredibly keen to take this project on, as she had briefly taken Irish dance lessons during school as a child, and has always been fascinated by the world. But she knew the task would be daunting. “I didn’t know if I knew enough about it to write authentically from that place, but I felt that I could bring something from where I was in my life at the time, and still am,” she says. In the film, Irish dance isn’t just a bit; it’s integral to Gemma’s character development.
“I don’t want to, for a second, ever act like I know more about the world of Irish dance than I do. I’m very much a couple of degrees removed from it,” she explains. “So it’s very important to us that we take care of how that’s reflected because it’s our culture.”
On the heels of the film’s premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in July, Ali joins our Zoom still catching her breath from the whirlwind of a journey it has been. We’re laughing and talking over each other from the start — and it’s obvious within minutes how much of herself Ali put into Gemma. Like her character, Ali is incredibly friendly, witty, and hilarious. But it’s her expressive blue eyes that tell most of the story as she brings me headfirst into the world of That’s So Feis. It all started, she tells me, with friendship.
Ali exudes gratitude for producers Aisling Lenihan and Eliza Fitzgibbon for being the short film’s guiding lights. She had known Eliza for years, as they grew up in the same town in Dublin. Then, one fateful day in 2023, the two of them met for a casual coffee with Aisling, and the trio hit it off immediately. They knew they wanted to collaborate on a project, and Eliza and Aisling saw a gap in the market for a film squarely focused on Irish dance.
Even though she herself had a short-lived dance career, Irish dancing has always been part of Ali’s family’s life. Her father is none other than Ronan Hardiman, the renowned composer who wrote the iconic music for Michael Flatley’s Lord Of the Dance, Feet Of Flames, and Celtic Tiger Live.
“It’s very important to us that we take care of how Irish dancing is reflected, because it’s our culture”
Ali Hardiman
Ali found her own way to connect to the family’s creative legacy through storytelling. After a childhood spent filling notebooks with short stories and unfinished novels, Ali attended the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin to pursue writing and acting. She has been named on both Extra.ie’s and The Sunday Times’ “30 Under 30” lists, and won Best Female Actor at the Dublin International Comedy Film Festival for her self-written short Magic. She also has multiple TV projects in development with leading UK and Irish production companies.
She says a turning point in her career came when she learned that some of her favourite films were written by the women who starred in them, such as Bridesmaids by Kristen Wiig and Mean Girls by Tina Fey. In fact, eagle-eyed viewers will recognise her short film’s title’s homage to the famous Mean Girls quote “that’s so fetch”, used by Gretchen Wieners as slang to mean hip and cool. “Anyone who gets this reference, that’s our audience,” Ali says with a wink.
Ali looked to other intergenerational comedies she grew up with for inspiration — including classics such as 13 Going On 30 and Uptown Girls — and set out to marry the story to relatable themes of milestones (getting married, buying the house, getting the promotion), generation gaps, and rediscovering old hobbies.
She also didn’t have to worry about securing rights to existing Irish music. Her brother, Sam, wrote original Irish tunes for That’s So Feis. Script and score in hand, the team secured funding through Screen Ireland’s Focus Shorts scheme, and within a year they were on set — but the work was only just beginning; Ali knew she had to do right by this community and her culture, a responsibility she didn’t take lightly.
Just like her character Gemma, Ali immersed herself in Irish dance to bring That’s So Feis to life. With a limited budget and narrow timeframe, Ali, Eliza, and Aisling were looking for local Irish dance schools in Dublin to collaborate with, which led them to the Foley Academy of Irish Dance, led by sisters Rachel and Amy Foley.
Aisling initially reached out to Rachel via the school’s social media page, explaining that they were looking to borrow costumes, secure help with choreographing a step or two, and recruit some dancers as extras. “She said that she really liked our dance page. She just got a really warm, nice feeling from it and she sent us a message, so we were glad to help,” Rachel says.
Ali will never forget coming to set on the first day to find that Rachel and the girls had filmed the steps ahead of time so she could practise at home. “It was really a ‘pinch me’ moment when I arrived at the class and they had created a dance to my brother’s music,” Ali says.
Ali also enjoyed working with dancers in the studio, including Baylee O’Rourke, who plays Penelope in the film, Callie Mae Rankin, and Amber Foran. They share how surreal it was being on a film set. Baylee appreciated how kind all the cast and crew were to them, while Callie Mae was excited to hear the magic words, “lights, camera, action!” for the first time.
“I really care about my culture and I really care about Irish dancing, as it was really important to my family growing up”
Ali Hardiman
“My favourite part was taking a step outside of the competitive side of Irish dancing and getting behind the camera,” Amber says. “It was a great atmosphere and very outside of our comfort zone.” It was magical for Ali, too — down to the small rituals lifelong competitors treasure, like trying on a solo dress for the first time. “I think if I had known more about the costumes, I probably would have done it for longer,” she jokes. However, in the film, Gemma struggles to find a costume with the right fit, at first trying on a bold leopard print solo costume that’s several sizes too small.
Ali also says that the vitality of light shoe dancing was something that surprised her, particularly during Baylee’s solo showcased at the end of the film. “It was just so forceful. It was quite invigorating,” Ali says. “That was something I wanted to have recorded, [like] ASMR kind of vibes.” (Us, too).
It’s these little details that capture Ali’s genuine affection for Irish dance, which helps the film thread its comedic needle so effortlessly. Part of that is helped by Ali’s preference for naturalism rather than slapstick comedy, along with her commitment to not making Irish dance the punchline, as pop culture so often does. “I really care about my culture and I really care about Irish dancing, as it was really important to my family growing up,” she says.
That sentiment extended to how much room she gave her cast. You might recognise a quotable line from the trailer: “In many ways, Irish dancing is closer in form to a martial art rather than a dance.” It’s the kind of joke that makes you laugh with the characters, and not at Irish dancing — and Peter McGann, who plays the dance teacher Pat, improvised it entirely.
McGann was actually a last-minute addition, brought in to combine his small cameo with the dance teacher role after another actor dropped out. “It was Peter’s idea to make him like a rugby coach,” Ali explains — an Irish dancing teacher “who’s really bitter about people thinking that it’s just a female sport or female art form. The film would have been so different if we hadn’t done that”.
In her pursuit of capturing the authenticity of Irish dance, Ali recalls a piece of wisdom from award-winning Irish writer Mary Kate O’Flanagan: “Audiences just want to see someone trying really hard to do something that they really want.” That vulnerability is baked into the film’s DNA. Irish dance is an incredibly demanding art form; dancers will understand the feeling of putting themselves out there, whether on the stage or on camera for social media.
“There was no judgement from the Foley Academy; they weren’t laughing at me or anything. They really made me feel comfortable and confident”
Ali Hardiman
This paralleled Ali’s own experience getting back into Irish dance. She emphasises how everyone at the Foley Academy was amazing at guiding her through it all. “They really helped me because I was really nervous about it. And they were just so open. There was no judgement; they weren’t laughing at me or anything. They really made me feel comfortable and confident,” she says.
In the early stages of the script, the team thought that by the end Gemma would become an amazing dancer. But they quickly realised that wasn’t the message they were going for. “As the drafts went on, we were like, ‘no, we need to see her let loose and be really bad at something and not be worried about it,’” Ali says.
As the showcase approaches, Gemma’s grown-up friends worry she’s embarrassing herself by putting herself out there. Yet Gemma takes the stage anyway, in a knee brace that harkens back to her childhood injury. We see her joy in the moment, thanks to Ali’s incredibly memorable facial expressions.
The Foley sisters were just as excited about breaking down Irish dance’s rigid image in the popular imagination. “The competitive world is so serious, there’s a lot of pressure on young kids when they’re competing at championship level,” Amy says. “And this was a way for them to showcase Irish dance in a fun way, and a new way.”
Amber agrees, emphasising how Irish dance is more than just competitions and showcases: “It’s friendship and passion and so much more.” We see that spirit play out in the film through the unexpected friendship that blossoms between Gemma and her teenage classmates, Kellie and Kim.
Reflecting on her own brief experience as a dancer, Ali remembers feeling that pressure and often wishes she had stuck with it. But something she didn’t expect to discover from the film is how massive a community there is for adult Irish dancers, something she realised even from the trailer’s response on social media alone.
“This was a way for [our dancers] to showcase Irish dance in a fun way”
Amy Foley
Baylee hopes that after watching the movie, people will realise it’s never too late to start Irish dancing. “If you believe in yourself, you can achieve it,” she says.
Right now, the plan is that the film will play festivals around the world for up to a year and then be available to stream online. Ali says she’d love to continue the story into a feature-length film to explore more themes. Who knows, maybe Gemma will even find herself competing at a local feis.
Underneath it all, Ali says an unexpected message she unearthed in her film was to not be afraid to try. It all starts with grabbing the ghillies and lacing up. In fact, this is the detail she keeps returning to when she talks about the film. Not the trailer. Not the premiere. The shoes.
“I hadn’t put a pair on since I was a child. Even putting the socks on was weird,” she says. “There was one moment where I was trying to lace up my shoes, and I didn’t want it to look stupid on camera. So I went over, all the girls from different ages, from eight to 16, were helping me tie up. There’s a picture of all of us around my shoes.”
This moment encapsulates the heart of the film: generations of dancers gathered together in a shared love of dance, having a laugh and loving the process. This, Ali says, is what Gemma’s journey is all about. “It’s someone really trying, and she’s not great, but she finds a community.”
Keep up to date with That’s So Feis release news at Yes Perfection Productions.
Photography: Courtesy of Yes Perfect Productions
Words: Siobhan Cooney
Design: Colleen Falco
Editor-In-Chief: Hollie Geraghty
