Olivia Boylan: “I Have the Best Trophy That There Is — I Have My Baby!”

If you were scrolling Instagram around Oireachtas season last year, you might have come across a photo showing a senior lady Irish dancer in a red and black dress, sitting on the edge of a competition stage. In the photo, the competitor has a trophy next to her and a first place sash on, with a banner for the North West Regional Oireachtas displayed in the background. What’s unusual about this particular photo, though, is not the silverware or sash — but the company of an adorable baby boy at the winner’s side, who she hugs close with a beaming smile on her face.

The snapshot was of Manchester-based champion dancer Olivia Boylan, 26, and her son, Coran. Her Instagram account features photos celebrating her pregnancy, the birth of her son, and her return to dancing and competition. This is somewhat unusual in the world of Irish dancing. Although many mothers have danced, taught, competed, and taken grade and teaching exams pre or post-pregnancy — including The Irish Dance Globe‘s own Ace & Deuce of Mothering columnist Diana Dersch — it is something that’s less spoken about. Often inspiration and encouragement for continuing to dance while pregnant and postpartum has to be found in other sports and performing arts forms. 

In recent years, elite athletes such as Serena Williams, Helen Glover and Alysia Montaño have publicly navigated the journey of pregnancy and new motherhood while training and competing in their sport. These women are just the beginning of a growing list of athletes at the top of their game that have dreamed to pursue excellence in their field, alongside the beautiful challenges of becoming a mother and raising children. 

In the world of professional ballet, meanwhile, dancers such as Ingrid Silva have openly documented their experiences of dancing while pregnant and returning to classes with their little one playing next to the barre. American ballet legend Misty Copeland, who took time off postpartum, has been training this year to return to the stage of American Ballet Theatre at the age of 41.

Now, in the world of Irish dancing, Olivia Boylan, who works as the head of marketing at a law firm, joins this growing list of incredible athletes showing us how it’s not only possible to dance after pregnancy, but to do so at an elite level and absolutely thrive. For Olivia, Irish dancing and Irish culture are vital parts of her identity — an identity she holds strongly alongside her role as a mum. ”It’s literally part of who I am,” Olivia says. “I’ve been doing it since I was four. I go to four classes a week, and then sometimes a competition. It might sound cliché, like, ‘Oh, it’s who I am’. But when you’ve done it for so long, and you’ve been so committed to it, it just becomes part of your life and something that you can’t think about being without.”

While every pregnancy and postpartum experience is completely unique with many factors we cannot control, Olivia is an amazing example of what determination and focus can help you achieve.

Olivia started dancing at the age of four in a local church hall with a family friend. She laughs while remembering showing up with her Nikes on and baby doll in hand, learning her skips and sevens. Not long after her fifth birthday, Olivia started to learn from Justine Ward-Mallinson, ADCRG, who has been her teacher ever since. “She’s brilliant — she would say it herself, she’d say ‘tough love!’ She’s tough on us, but it’s because she wants us to do well.”

And Olivia did in fact do well — between her work ethic and Justine’s “tough love”, she successfully dove into the world of Irish dance competition, winning her first championship at the age of six. At eight she attended her first major, placing 23rd at the British Nationals. That same year she achieved second at the North West Oireachtas, a feat she replicated the following year, qualifying for her first World Championships, which took place in Belfast in 2008.

As her career continued on with its share of ups and downs — as is the case for every Irish dancer — she remembers 2010 as being a pivotal year for her, as her results began to significantly improve, and the following year she won her first North West Oireachtas. “This was huge for me — I had wanted to win this for as long as I could remember.”

In 2019, Olivia’s competition career was on fire — she placed 12th at the 2019 Greensboro World Championships, then was top of the podium for both the British Nationals and Great Britains. In 2020, Olivia achieved sixth at All Irelands: her highest placement at that major to date. Then of course, just a month later, the world changed.

As was the case for so many dancers, the COVID pandemic brought Olivia’s competitive career to a halt. “How disappointing that was — as it was for everybody — to not have Worlds. But two years to not have the All Ireland [and] off the back of doing so well, having won the British Nationals, having won the Great Britain. It was like, ‘Oh, what am I working for?’” At least it wasn’t a complete stop, however, as Olivia had the opportunity to dance with Lord of the Dance in Taiwan in 2020.

When competitions slowly began to return in 2021, Olivia got right back to it, winning the Three Nations Championship in August. But then, just as both the Irish dance community and world at large started to acclimate to a “new normal”, Olivia received some news: she was pregnant.

“I refused to talk about it until I was like 16 weeks, like I was just in absolute shock. I knew my life was going to change: I had just bought a house, we just got a puppy! And I found out I was pregnant, and I was just like, ‘What is going on?’ I mean, not in a place where I was struggling — in a place where I was just ignoring it and carried on. Nobody else knew — my parents didn’t even know until I was 16 weeks. I think I told Justine just before the All Ireland which was then cancelled anyway.”

“Nobody else knew. I remember standing on the podium at the All Scotlands and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I’m pregnant,’” she laughs. “And on the podium at the Great Britain thinking, ‘Oh, my God, like, what am I doing? This is crazy. How does nobody know?’ Because I felt like my dress didn’t zip up. And I had terrible morning sickness.”

Olivia was determined to keep dancing so long as it was healthy and safe to do so. “I obviously kind of toned it down a bit, right? I was just going through the motions, keeping fit, making sure my muscles would remember my steps when I came back.”

Both she and her partner, Nick, knew how critical it was to continue going to classes if she could — it was too important a part of her mental health to stop. Olivia laughs when noting that during previous breaks from class — for example, during the holidays — Nick would say to her, “‘Can you go back to class now? Like, you need to go back to class now.’ So yeah, more than the mental stability throughout the pregnancy as well. I thought it was really important.”

In addition to continuing attending dance classes — which she did up until she was 32 weeks along — she lifted weights at the gym, with Nick along for moral support. She turned a few heads, clearly the gym-goers were not accustomed to seeing a pregnant athlete among their ranks. “It was also priceless to go into the gym and do deadlifts and squats. The guys in the gym are looking at me like, ‘Oh my god’. So there was something quite amusing that kept me going.”

Olivia and Nick welcomed their son Coran on May 18, 2022. And although Olivia was cleared by her doctor to return to exercise at six weeks postpartum, she reflects that her initial postpartum period was quite difficult. After having Coran via emergency C-section, the baby struggled to gain weight, breastfeeding was challenging, and, of course, she was going through intense sleep deprivation. Olivia noted that outwardly she was presenting to everyone as though she was fine, but the reality was different. Although her dance community was supportive, it could be isolating to dance in a class with young students who couldn’t understand the realities of being a new mum while trying to resume being a high level athlete. 

Fortunately, Olivia had incredible support from her family. “My sister was still on maternity leave when I was — she has a baby just six months older — and my mum’s retired. So they kept me sane. We would just get up and go out every day. It’s just the best thing you can do, whether it was a walk or shopping or coffee or lunch.’”

It is a testament to Olivia’s force of will and the support she received that she returned to competition at ten weeks postpartum — she danced at the British Nationals and placed fourth. “I’m surprised I could even get my legs up,” she remembers, laughing. “But I remember just being so satisfied that I’d finished my King of the Fairies at 76 at ten weeks postpartum!”

“It wasn’t for anybody else — it should never be for anyone else. It was for myself and my own satisfaction. And for my son — to set an example, at that early stage of life — that you can do anything that you put your mind to. Obviously, I had the right support from my mum and my teacher and other family members, which made it possible.”

Olivia’s experience at the British Nationals set off her journey back to the Worlds stage. As Olivia put it, she “really put the foot on the pedal”. She resumed running, aiming to run four kilometres every other day. “I started doing loads more classes at the gym. And then obviously, I’ve upped my classes again to four nights a week. My dance teacher always says there’s no way to train for dancing other than dancing!” Additionally she focused on her nutrition, making sure she was fuelling herself properly both for the additional training, to heal from the process of pregnancy and childbirth, and the energy requirements of a new mum.

“I just spent a lot of time not putting pressure on myself, but enjoying the exercise I hadn’t been able to do for nine months. I just told myself how I was just so pleased to be back, and so I was a bit more fearless I suppose.”

That feeling of being able to just go for it, with nothing to lose carried Olivia through her competitions leading up to Worlds, landing her an impressive fourth place at All Irelands. Although she describes the moment of dancing at Worlds as nerve-wracking, she kept telling herself that she wasn’t nervous. “Thinking back now, I was probably more nervous [but] I was telling myself, ‘You’re not nervous, like you’ve got nothing to lose. I have the best trophy that there is — I have my baby!’ And I call him my trophy, because nobody can take that away from me. I don’t have to give him back after a year! So I just told myself that I had nothing to lose. It was exciting.”

Olivia went on to achieve her highest Worlds placement yet: eighth. In fact, several of her placements in 2023, one year postpartum, were her highest placements in her career: fourth at All Irelands, second at Scottish Nationals, and second at the North American Nationals.

Olivia is an inspiring testament to what can be achieved with the right support and willpower — while also serving as a reminder that every pregnancy and postpartum journey is unique in its own way. Olivia advocates for the health and safety of mum and baby first, noting that knowing your own body and what it is capable of should always be taken into consideration.

Above all, Olivia is living proof that there is a path for new mums out there, and, given the right support, mindset, and circumstances, you can achieve your goals. “For me, when I fell pregnant, I knew it was the biggest blessing,” Olivia says. “I knew that was meant for me. But also, I know that I love my dancing and that I wasn’t ready to give up. I just wasn’t ready to quit. So I found ways and means to make it possible.”

Follow Olivia on Instagram.

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Photography: Megan Ramsay
Editing/ Design: Colleen Falco
Words: Julia Topper
Editor-In-Chief: Hollie Geraghty
Social Media: Käri Barile