Ally Giannini from Lenihan School of Irish Dance
6th place, Open Championships Ladies 17 & Over
Torrington Feis 2011
photo courtesy Lenihan School of Irish Dance

The New England Region of the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America was treated to a two-day Irish dancing competition (feis) in Torrington, Connecticut over the weekend. Dancers from New England and the mid-Atlantic region made for tough competition as Irish dancers from the grades and champion levels vied for coveted placements. With the regional Irish dancing championships just five weeks away for New England Region dancers, champions looked to adjudicators for constructive criticism to shape their final weeks of training. North American Irish Dancing Champions and World qualifiers from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey put their best feet forward on two stages Sunday, while beginners through prizewinners danced on stages set up in the gymnasium at the Lewis S. Mills High School in Torrington, Connecticut.

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Congratulations to all those who placed, especially Bremer School dancers Julianna Bremer for Girls under 11 and Siobhann O'Neil for Girls under 15; Gilleoghan's Hali Thorne for Girls under 17 and Matt Mulvey for Men 16 & Over, and Griffith Academy's Colin Dyson for Boys under 12, all who achieved perfect scores of 300!

Tabulation was by the experts at FeisWeb. Here are Top Five results for a few competitions, please visit FeisWeb here for full results for Preliminary and Open Championships.

Open Championship Girls Under 10
Judged by Elicia Greenway Folmer, MA, Vivienne Bergin, NY & Joan McNiff Cass, NY
1 Ciara Blomberg (Goulding - MA)
2 Sadie Bucknam (Murray)
3 Ciara Foley (Forbes)
4 Jessica Connolly (Pender-Keady)
5 Nora Rose Ahern (Gilleoghan)

Preliminary Championship Girls under 13
Judged by Eddie Irwin, MA, Cathy Spencer Revis, NY & Maureen Greene O'Leary, MA
1 Alexus Reid (Spirited Soles)
2 Maeve Sargeant (Francis Academy)
3 Jillian Riccio (Kelly-Oster)
4 Erin Gorham (Shamrock - CT)
5 Maura Connorton (Young School - NY)

Open Championship Girls Under 14
Judged by Helaine Sander, NY, John Cunniffe, MA & Maureen Hamilton Nelson, NJ
24 Registered, 18 Entered, 0 Withdrew . . . Awards To Top 9 Finishers ( 50% )
Place . . . . Dancer ( School )
1 < 300 > … #724 Anna Sulger (Pender-Keady)
2 < 200 > … #173 Hannah Campbell (Goulding - MA)
3 < 172.5 > … #324 Elizabeth Gallary (Brady)
4 < 171.5 > … #388 Emma Henricks (Murray)
5 < 170 > … #501 Jennifer Mancini (Murray)
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Open Championship Girls Under 15
Judged by Elicia Greenway Folmer, MA, Vivienne Bergin, NY & Joan McNiff Cass, NY
1 Siobhan ONeill (Bremer) with a perfect score of 300!
2 Breanna Ahern (Gilleoghan)
3 Emma Stone (Dunleavy Shaffer)
4 Bailey B. Carter (Boland)
5 Kellyn Berrigan (Pender-Keady)

Preliminary Championship Girls under 15
Judged by Eddie Irwin, MA, Cathy Spencer Revis, NY & Maureen Greene O'Leary, MA
1 Mary Panzetta (Rince Na Sonas)
2 Gabrielle Connell (McDermott)
3 Alyson Insero (Boland)
4 Sheppard Somers (Hagen)
5 Brigid Meagher (Marie Moore)


Gilleoghan (Connecticut) Novice-level dance friends
Rory Bach, Bella Wild, Erin-Marie Smith and Sarah Scofield
photo by Catherine Bach for Feis America LLC

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