Carolina Irish Association will hold a dance show

Their acronym may be CIA, but the Carolina Irish Association does not tap secrets — they tap their feet to tunes.

The Carolina Irish Association’s spring showcase on Sunday will feature traditional Irish dances and a showdown with the Carolina Tap Ensemble. It is the organization’s first showcase, following its efforts to expand its presence on campus this year.

“Most people don’t know what Irish dance is and we want to show people what it is,” said sophomore Olivia DeSena, the group’s marketing and publicity department officer.

“It’s very athletic and a really cool form of dance.”

Many of the dancers in the club are highly experienced in Irish dancing and the pieces for the showcase are all student-choreographed by the group members.

“A lot of our dancers have competed at national and regional levels, and one of the girls placed at the world championships and won nationals one year,” DeSena said.

“We have a wide variety of talent.”

The Carolina Tap Ensemble was invited to perform in the Carolina Irish Association’s showcase because tap dancing shares similar roots with Irish dancing.

“We make similar sounds, we just make different moves,” DeSena said. “We wanted to play with that.”

In addition to infusing tap dance with Irish dance, the showcase will also add a modern twist to the traditional dance — by dancing along to the James Bond theme song.

“I just really like that we’re doing traditional music as well as really contemporary things,” said junior Halie Reed, co-president of the Carolina Irish Association.

“Our initials go with CIA, so I figured, let’s play on that, and we chose ‘James Bond.’”

Beginners will also be performing in the showcase. This is the first time the organization has accepted beginners and offered free lessons in Irish dancing.

“We really wanted to bring more people,” Reed said. “We wanted more structure and a more cohesive as well as fun group.”

Both DeSena and Reed said there is a general curiosity surrounding Irish dance on campus.

“I actually choreographed a piece for Blank Canvas last semester with an Irish style dance, and people were saying it’s so unique and they liked it,” Desena said.

“So hopefully people will see it and like it, and they can join us as beginners or just learn a bit more about Irish dance.”

Sophomore Olivia Barnes has practiced Irish dancing since she was young.

“I took lessons since I was little, but I stopped when I got to high school because I was too busy,” she said. “I picked it up again here and it’s exciting.”

Barnes will be performing in eight out of 10 dances.

“Just getting back into dance brings back a lot of memories when I was a kid,” she said.

“I think all of us have a little bit of Irish in us, somewhere.”

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