Erin McPolin: “You Should Dance Because You Love It, Not Because You Want to Win”

“I literally couldn’t stop smiling!” says Erin McPolin with a beaming grin over video chat, sitting on the floor of the Carey Academy’s former studio in Birmingham. She’s recalling the moment she walked into the Palais des Congrès de Montréal for the 2023 CLRG World Championships, except this year, she wasn’t there to compete. “I was like, ‘I’m just so happy to not dance!’” she adds with a relieved laugh. “It just felt so good being there and not having the pressure. I was just like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is the right decision.’”

Erin, 19, from Coventry, may now be reflecting on the biggest event on the Irish dance calendar as a retired competitor with a touch of levity, but she’s had more than her fair share of nerve-wracking dance days. After all, she’s achieved a podium position every year that she competed at the Worlds from 2014 to 2022 — with the exception of 2015 when her teacher was judging — along with Great Britain, North American and Oireachtas championship titles.

You only have to watch her intricately crafted steps and water-tight technique to see why she has enjoyed such a fruitful competitive career. Whether she’s executing a rock solid holding jump in her heavy round followed by a mesmerising rhythm sequence, or navigating the very edge of the stage while spinning on tips of her toes, Erin’s style seamlessly blends athleticism, speed, grace, and technical brilliance, making for an always thrilling display.

But having experienced her first taste of the adrenaline-fuelled whirlwind that is touring at the beginning of 2022 — with Lord Of The Dance on their second Taiwan run which required a two-week hotel quarantine, no less — it didn’t take long before Erin found herself feeling like it was time to close the chapter on her competitive career and commit to the professional Irish dance world wholeheartedly. “I’ve had such an amazing journey,” she says. “And it’s just time now to enjoy the shows, and that’s the best part of it,” she adds. “I just felt like it was time, you know?”

Like many of us, Erin’s first glimpse of the Carey Academy was in the 2011 documentary film Jig. But the earliest days of her dance career started back when she was three-and-a-half-years-old, when she joined the Celtica Academy as an after school club — which was dedicated mostly to shows — following in the footsteps of her sister, who is two years older. “My mum didn’t really know anything at the time, she just thought, ‘Oh, it’s just Irish dancing,’” she recalls. At the same time, Erin started with the Keogh school (now Scoil Rince Tullamore) which allowed dancers to compete at feiseanna, so she attended both for a while before deciding to commit to the competitive side. “I don’t really remember it to be honest, but I guess we just obviously enjoyed it straight away and kept on going back.” 

But as the would-be Irish dance phenomenon that was Jig hit cinemas, Erin immediately envisioned a future dancing with John Carey, who is captured in the film dissecting and perfecting the dancing of world champions Joe Bitter and John Whitehurst on a molecular level. “I was like, ‘I want him to be my dancing teacher,” Erin says. “And then I just kept going on and on about it.”

The family eventually made the decision to move to Carey when Erin was seven-years-old. “It seemed like such a big deal because it was like a half an hour drive. Now it’s nothing, but at the time [my mum] was like, ‘It’s a big commitment.’” That would be the beginning of the next phase of Erin’s dance journey. “I remember we were pulling into the studio and I was literally screaming of excitement,” she recalls.

She walked into a packed class and was immediately starstruck by the prospect of practising alongside dancers that she’d watched growing up. “Being in such a big class like Carey, there were so many people I could watch and it made me develop as a dancer so much more, because they were way better than me, and I wanted to be like them.”

Carey would prove to be a perfect fit for Erin, who was more than able to keep up with the demands of the school and their famously detailed steps. “I was actually fortunate, I always picked up steps fairly quickly,” she says. Her first competition with them was the Midlands Oireachtas, with her school transfer ban ending the very night before. She won first place, up two spots from the year prior.

The same year, she attended the North American Nationals — her first ever major competition — and won first place across the pond, too. For the first time, Erin realised her potential. “It was like a big deal then. I was like, ‘Oh, we’ve got serious.’”

By 2014, Erin was dancing at her first World Championships, which were held in London. “I don’t have that much memory of my first Worlds, but I do have some,” she says. That year, the top four dancers were all from Erin’s home Midlands region — a testament to the incredible talent that was coming up right alongside her. “I was still really young, so you don’t really understand it, so you just go in there thinking you’re dancing at another competition.” She placed fourth that year, unaware at the time that she would never drop below that position at any World Championships thereafter.

When Erin missed the following Worlds due to her teacher being on the judging panel, it also coincided with her discovering she had Sever’s disease, which is when the muscle in your heel grows faster than the bone. She took the whole year off to recover.

Upon her return, Erin landed fourth two more times consecutively in 2016 and 2017 — always impressive, though increasingly familiar results. “I was injured a lot throughout the years,” she says, remembering a dip of 21st at the All Irelands and 9th at the All Scotlands. “It was always [about] trying to get back fit for the Worlds,” she says. “Sometimes I’d do better, but sometimes I’d do worse. So I was just happy to retain that place and then try and keep injury free.” Without the abundance of free information dancers now have at their disposal online about general muscle and tendon health, Erin often suffered from fractures and sprains. “I struggled for a good few years with injury,” she says.

By the 2018 Worlds in Glasgow, Erin felt especially confident going into the competition, pinpointing that year as the first time she was truly consistent. It was also the year that Erin’s senior lady classmate Jess Hindley won the Worlds for the first time, so the pair had worked together on the same dances in the lead up. “I remember we were happy with how I danced, and going into it I was strong,” she says. “We were like, ‘It might not go your way today, but if it does, then we’re happy.” After three fourth places, that day in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Erin finally climbed into the runner up position that she had stood directly next to on the podium for three years. “It just felt good to move up,” she says. “It was good to finally get a globe, I always used to be one off the globe. And then it was that year that the top five got all globes!”

But it wasn’t just consistency that got Erin that placement. She recalled feeling much more “grown up” going into that Worlds, finally able to comprehend all of the work she had done to get there. “I realised that I had to put everything in going, then that’s all I can do. So I think I was much more serious.” That meant extra practices, increasing the volume, and “putting in the extra mile” — specifically, four classes a week and one private lesson, along with completing workouts posted to their school group chat, after which dancers would respond with a picture to prove they had done it.

Erin placed second at the World Championships two more times in the years following — phenomenal achievements, but inevitably tinged with bittersweetness. “I feel like at the time, you don’t appreciate it,” she says. “It’s easy to be disappointed when you’re getting the same results. And especially with second, the only way up is first. Sometimes I’d look around and be like, ‘But I’m happy! Second’s still so good,” she adds. “It was hard sometimes to go into a competition and come away disappointed when I was like, ‘But I don’t want to be disappointed every time.’”

She recalls receiving a supportive message from Riverdance lead Amy-Mae Dolan, who also achieved second place at the World Championships numerous times, sharing with Erin that now she can look back and appreciate those achievements fully.

After the downtime of the Covid-19 years, Erin returned feeling less concerned about results. Throughout those months, she spent time nurturing her creative side, including co-choreographing her unforgettable collaboration with David Geaney for the Irish world champion’s lockdown series. “I was appreciating my love for dance instead of just going into a competition to try and win it,” she says. “I definitely look back and realise winning isn’t everything. Obviously, it’s amazing, and everyone wants to win. But you don’t have to focus your whole dancing on winning. You should dance because you love it, not because you want to win.”

Back in February this year, Erin officially announced her retirement with a reflective Instagram post. “The past 12 years at Carey has been what every dancer could ever dream of,” it read, alongside a montage of her finest moments. “To dance alongside and be taught by the most incredible, talented people has shaped me into the person I am.” The comments section was flooded with dancers loading praise and admiration onto Erin, while others thanked her for inspiring them on their own dance journey. Some told her that the best is yet to come. And with that hope already in mind, Erin committed to her decision to step back from the competitive scene.

Erin danced at her last competition in November 2022 — the Midlands qualifying Oireachtas. Exactly 10 years since she last won it, she took home her final ever championship title. Two days later, their school found out they wouldn’t be entering the 2023 Worlds due to an association on the judging panel. With the prospect of having to wait a whole extra year, Erin decided to pursue the joy that dancing in shows was bringing her. She’s now paused the second year of her university studies in sport, physical education, and coaching science to give the professional world her all. “I really want to learn how to be part of a show and be a good performer,” she says.

Now, Erin is finally dancing with one of the productions she dreamed of seeing herself in as a child. “I feel like when I was there, it didn’t really feel like this was actually Lord Of The Dance,” she says. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is literally what I’ve been wanting my whole life!’ It’s easy to forget how big of a deal it is.” Since Taiwan, she’s been to Budapest for rehearsals of a new show with Michael Flatley, completed a 10-week European tour, and performed at the 25th anniversary show in Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre this February. That’s all alongside being picked to perform in the Gaiety Theatre with Riverdance at the end of the summer school programme last year, and dancing with A Taste Of Ireland, who she’ll be joining again in just a few weeks’ time on their UK tour.

With a little bit of a time, space, and perspective, but still a whole lot of love for Irish dancing, we ask Erin if she has experienced any new-found clarity about just what matters most? “Enjoy it whilst you’re in it,” she says. “It’s so easy to let it get you down and get stressed about it. Obviously you remember when you do well at a competition, but that’s one day. You remember the journey of it,” she adds.

“The thing that I miss more than anything now is going to class. I loved going to class and just being with your friends, and you really have to just enjoy it because that’s what you’re going to remember for the rest of your life.”

“Just be present in the moment,” she says, “because it goes so fast.”

Follow Erin on Instagram.

Photography: Erin McPolin
Editing/ Design: Colleen Falco
Words: Hollie Geraghty
Social Media: Käri Barile