After 12 consecutive top five World Championship placements, 25-year-old Jess Rogers had achieved more than enough to be proud of in her 21-year dancing journey. So in 2017, the dancer, from Athlone, Westmeath, bowed out with second place at what she thought would be her last Worlds. But in 2019 she decided she wasn’t quite finished. She planned to return for the 2020 Worlds in April before taking the first part of her An Chomhdháil TCRG exam in June. But then the pandemic happened. “I remember on the way home from work I just saw this message that the Worlds was cancelled, and I just started bawling my eyes out,” Jess says. “I just couldn’t believe it, because I was so ready for it even at that point after coming back. And that was my goal for a solid year.”
The window for Jess to reach the top of the podium was closing. She passed the first part of her TCRG in September 2021, and the Worlds was rescheduled for November. In An Chomhdháil, dancers can still compete if they have only passed one part of the teachers’ exam. With the second part scheduled for February, it was now or never. On the morning of dance day at the Worlds, Jess woke up and told herself it was just like any other feis day. She ate breakfast, warmed up, and “got in the zone” by listening to Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’. “I’ve been listening to her for a few weeks, and I was like ‘that’s going on the morning of the Worlds,’” Jess says. “Because it’s all about if you get knocked down, get up again, and ‘this is your day, believe it.’” After 12 years of waiting, maybe it would finally be Jess’ day.
“If it didn’t happen now, it was never going to happen.”
Jess Rogers
She was only ahead by four marks at one point during the results, but for the first time ever, she saw her name at the top of the Worlds scoreboard. “I’m still in shock, to be honest,” she says. “What was going through my mind was ‘is this actually real?’” Along with the pure elation of the win, Jess could also finally feel a sense of completion. “I knew it was my last chance and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to achieve in my dance career.” She adds: “It was the happiest moment in my life, but also a relief because I put in so much work, if it didn’t happen now, it’s never going to happen.”
The making of that moment would start about 10 years prior to her win. “I remember saying to my mum – I think I was in the car – just one random day, I was maybe 14 or 15: ‘I’m just not giving up until I win the Worlds’. I think it was just random, I wasn’t even talking about dance,” she says. “She started laughing at me and said, ‘I can just imagine you walking out onto the stage with a zimmer frame’. It turns out, I wasn’t far off.”
In the pursuit of a World title, Jess had to go through everything non-dancers her age were also doing. She moved to Galway for university aged 18 and continued to go home at the weekends for classes and feiseanna. After university Jess moved to Dublin where she would make the tough decision to retire and pursue the notoriously difficult chartered accountancy exams. When she completed them, she decided to return to dance while working full time in the audit industry, something she describes as “not your typical nine to five.”
“[My mum] started laughing at me and said, ‘I can just imagine you walking out onto the stage with a zimmer frame’. It turns out, I wasn’t far off.”
Jess Rogers
So what is different when a dancer makes the decision to return to dance – older, wiser, and hungrier? Jess remembers being so nervous at competitions when she was younger, that she couldn’t eat or talk to people. But as an older dancer, she was able to see things through a new lens. “I think you’ve got maturity and experience and you bring it all together,” she says. “I think you just understand yourself more, you understand your body more and what you’re capable of.”
Often younger dancers have to learn the hard way that passion and dedication don’t always reap the results you dream of. So sometimes, a little bit of perspective can go a long way. “I suppose you know to take it seriously, but also not to take it too seriously as well,” Jess says. “I just learned to actually enjoy the process a bit more this time.” She also learned about the importance of supplementing Irish dancing training with gym fitness and conditioning. “I had never really incorporated any other training into my training for dancing. So my last couple of years, I started training in the gym and I found it did help me in terms of my strength and fitness.”
Winning the Worlds isn’t Jess’ only big achievement this year. She’s also the first An Chomhdháil dancer to grace the cover of The Irish Dance Globe. Maybe not quite on the same level, we’ll concede. But there’s no doubt that dancing in Chomhdháil offers a different kind of journey, as is the case with any organisation. “I think I’ve always just loved being a part of An Chomhdháil. I’ve been at the same dance school [Concannon Ganley Academy] since I started when I was four. And I’ve just loved the whole experience, the whole journey from my first class right up to winning my last Worlds,” she says. “I think just the community itself has been so supportive. My dance school is just the best second family I could ask for.”
“I just learned to actually enjoy the process a bit more this time”
Jess Rogers
A supportive dance school is a must for any dancer competing at such a high level for so many years. It’s this same gratitude that has allowed Jess to recognise her multiple podium placements as achievements and not failures. “I’m so lucky to say I have that many high places over the years. I’m not disappointed in that sense, but it was still just like I was chasing that win for so long,” she says. “I think that’s kind of what kept pushing me – obviously I was delighted to be doing so well, and I was constantly up there – I was so close. So that was kind of the reason I had to keep trying.”
So now, a few weeks on since the win, what does it feel like to have won a Worlds? “I think just the fact that I eventually actually achieved my dream, it just made all the years of hard work so worth it,” she says. “When you’re actually putting in the work, there’s kind of days where you’re getting down or like you might lose a bit of motivation. There was definitely a couple of years there where I was making myself do it just to give myself a chance. But I wasn’t probably enjoying it as much as I should have been,” she adds. “But this year, I just decided my main goal is just go out there and dance my best. So that’s what the work was for, dance your best on the day, and give yourself the best chance, and whatever happens, happens.”
Three strong rounds. It’s all any dancer, teacher and parent could ever ask for. “I felt like I had done that,” Jess says. “So the fact that I won on top of that was just a really good bonus.”
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