Where do you start with a dancer like Ciara Sexton?
Former lead of the two biggest Irish dance shows in the world, five-time world champion, now a TCRG, Broadway show choreographer, lecturer and life coach, yet the impact she continues to make on the Irish dance world seems to transcend all of this. As well as being a performer of once-in-a-generation proportions, her unwavering commitment to inspiring and motivating dancers around the globe has established her as one of the most influential people in Irish dance.
It’s quite astonishing then, that Ciara, now 33, didn’t always believe in her own potential. “I was not naturally gifted in any way, shape, or form. I had to work really hard to be quite average,” she says. First attending an Irish dance class at three-years-old, she was determined to follow in the footsteps of her two older sisters. But growing up she was occupied with various other pursuits, including running for Great Britain, that could have taken her down a different path.
“I was just a really sporty person, and I loved being in activities,” she says. “But I was starting to excel at Irish dance when I was about 13.” She remembers an important conversation with her teacher Marion Turley of the Turley Duggan School in Coventry, around this time. “She said: ‘You could be really good at this. But there’s so much time dedicated to other things. I’m just letting you know that you could go really far in this field.’”
Ciara would win her first World Championships when she was 15. But even then she was yet to adopt the proactive mindset that she teaches today. “I had never personally walked into something and thought ‘Today’s my day,’” she says. “I did know I was prepared…and not every World Championship I felt that way.” She would go on to win four more, including the prestigious Senior Ladies title, but she graciously highlights that these were not consecutive. “I definitely had my down days, and definitely learned my lessons.”
Remarkably, Ciara has done well since then to outperform her competitive achievements, making what appeared to be a seamless transition to professional shows in 2007 when she was 19, while keeping a foot in the competitive scene until 2010. But even with World titles under her belt and a spot in Lord of the Dance as her first professional gig, she was still doubtful of what she had to offer. “What is competitive dancing to show dancing?” she asks. “They’re two completely separate worlds. I had nothing in my bag. But I knew that I was going to work really hard. Because when I finally got the chance, I just wasn’t going to waste it.”
“I definitely had my down days, and definitely learned my lessons”
Ciara Sexton
She refined her distinctive stage persona to one that is defined by an incomparable chic flair, a glowing presence that can veer from playful and fiery one minute, to graceful and nimble the next. This not only caught the eye of Michael Flatley himself, but coincided with a decision that would make her unmissable for a different reason: a haircut. “The wigs we wore, I’m not gonna lie, they were absolutely humongous,” she says, reflecting on the show before it underwent a rebrand for Lord of the Dance 3D in 2010. “They were big Vegas show style wigs. They were heavy. And they were soaking by the end of the show.”
But one day during rehearsals when Ciara was originally only cast in a troupe role, she was pulled for an audition by Mr Flatley. “I didn’t even have time to think of ‘This is your shot’, or ‘Go and put your wig on’. And I just walked on stage, and I thought, ‘I haven’t got any hair. I haven’t looked in the mirror. I don’t know how I look for this audition’. I just thought, ‘You better dance out of your skin.’”
The feedback was brief. “He said something like, ‘That’s great. I love the hair. Let’s go with that,’” she says. “And then it felt like overnight, all the wigs were gone. Every girl in the show was wearing their own hair in different styles.” She would go on to perform one of the most modern and innovative interpretations of the ‘Bad Girl’ the show had ever seen.
In 2013 Ciara took on a new challenge, performing lead with the explosive new stage show Heartbeat of Home, and would continue as lead in Riverdance the following year – the very show she received a rejection from when she applied as a newcomer seven years prior. Her look would continue to bring something different to the show that originally put Irish dancing on the map more than 25 years ago. “I was so surprised that I wouldn’t have to wear a wig in Riverdance.” she says. “And I’ve never seen anyone like me dance the part. I am quite short. When I was growing up all of the leads in Riverdance were taller, blonde hair, model-like quality looks, and I just could never see myself in the green dress ever.”
“When I finally got the chance, I just wasn’t going to waste it”
Ciara Sexton
She recalls the choreography, which traditionally included moments where the female lead would run her fingers through her hair. “I could have let [things like that] either, not embarrass me, but make me very self conscious at substituting for something else,” she says. “I just took it as an opportunity to add in something different and be a different character.”
Having spent 15 years of her life touring professionally, Ciara turned her attention to producing, directing and choreographing her first commercial Irish dance show in 2017, The Celtic Gift. More recently, she choreographed Fáinne Óir in 2019, which premiered to sold out crowds in Ireland and on Broadway. She was approached to work on the show by a composer who told her “I don’t really like Irish dancing”, but had seen a video of Ciara dancing barefoot and wanted to replicate that style. “I obviously panicked, had a blind panic attack, and just thought, ‘Who will watch this for two and a half hours?’” she says. “When we were all working towards that goal, something magical happened and we built this show.”
Fáinne Óir would go on to be a more spiritual experience than Ciara could have anticipated. In the middle of choreographing the production, she lost her father, an experience she shared with her own character in the show. “Sometimes I can’t really remember making up bits of the show. And I really leaned heavily on the cast to try and carry it,” she says. “But the show is about love and loss, and the father dies in the first act. It’s really harrowing. It’s not like the Vegas show that I started in, or the cultural show that I finished in. It was far more hard hitting and it required massive amounts of acting.
“My character Saoirse, was crying on stage every night. It was the first time that I was dancing on stage and I wasn’t happy or sad, or good or bad. And it was so incredible to be this multifaceted character,” she says. “I just thought it was the perfect time in my life to portray and create this character. So when they say everything happens for a reason, I really think that that was a part of my life for a reason.” Ciara is currently choreographing a new play, with details currently under wraps, but will mark a new milestone where she will act solely as choreographer and director, and not a dancer alongside these roles.
“I obviously panicked and just thought ‘Who will watch this for two and a half hours?'”
Ciara Sexton
The elusive “reason” that has determined Ciara’s path so far has now brought her to a place where she can bring out the best in other dancers. Even before adopting life coaching as a professional vocation, the waves of Ciara Sexton’s positivity rippled through the dance world – from competitions, to online, to numerous stories from dancers who have had the chance to meet her. “It means everything,” she says of being able to have an impact on others. “What more could you ask for in life, if you inspire even one person?” Was there anyone who was this person to her? “Thousands of people!” she exclaims. “I’m so inspired by everyone. And it’s all for different reasons.” She gushes about her admiration of her Riverdance predecessors, and reels off dancers like Andy O’Reilly and Bobby Hodges who became her cast mates.
This appreciation for the world of Irish dancing crosses organisations, as she remembers feeling a “true connection” with the dancing of An Chomhdháil All Ireland Champion and Riverdance cast member Christina Havlin, also describing being “blown away” by the rise of Festival dancing pioneered by Lauren Smyth. Her passion for Irish dance in all its forms oozes out of her every word. “I do feel like a lot of us are very addicted to Irish dance, and I will hold my hands up and say I am too,” she says.
“There’s nothing as important as your mind work, it’s as important as your stamina work”
Ciara Sexton
This visceral passion for Irish dance means her words are effortlessly sprinkled with pearls of wisdom, sometimes without her even knowing it, it seems. Her brief reflections and snippets of lessons she teaches are uncannily relevant to my own dance journey and that of so many others, validating the universality of the Irish dance experience. It’s not difficult to see why she now finds herself dedicating her time to helping other dancers, along with teaching at Scoil Uí Nualláin in Limerick with her husband Cian Nolan.
Her understanding of the mental barriers that afflict Irish dancers is deeply perceptive – insights that could only be gathered from years of learned experiences. “There’s nothing as important as your mind work, it’s as important as your stamina work,” she says. “It’s very easy to say, I don’t know how this is going to go,” she continues. “But it’s also very easy to say ‘I deserve this’. And I feel like people are afraid to say that sometimes. Because in the back of your mind: ‘Who do I think I am? Who will people think I am?’ Well, they’ll think you’re someone who works really hard. So why don’t why don’t you do this for yourself? I’m just here to give people that little push. And that really starts in your heart.”
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