Irish Step Dancer from Dedham steps it up with Celtic Angels

By: Kay Ryder

The Irish Cultural Centre is more than just a place to watch Irish Football, and listen to Irish music. It’s a gateway to experiencing Irish culture, finding your passions, and embracing family history. September brings new beginnings, and also many examples of Irish culture and heritage through concerts and more. Saturday the twenty-first, we will host the Celtic Angels of Ireland, and joining them will be the Celtic Knight Dancers, and the Trinity Band Ensemble of Dublin. It will be a fantastic display of Irish song, dance and music sure to capture your heart.

Even though most of the performers were born and raised in Ireland, some of our dancers are closer to home than you might think. Dedham’s own, Shane Fitzgerald shares his experience as an Irish Dancer, and his upbringing here at the Irish Cultural Centre as a young kid. He will be featured as one of the dancers in the Celtic Knights at our Saturday show, and he has quite the dancing resume.

Shane grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts where he spent most of his twenty-five year old life. He attended Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, and then went on to Providence College for his undergrad. He has many ties to Ireland, with his father born in Dingle, and his maternal grandmother from Kerry, and maternal Grandfather from Sligo. Shane and his family visited relatives every other year, which became some of his favorite memories growing up. He began Irish step dancing at the age of eight, developed a great passion and has continued ever since then. He credits his beginnings to a dear family friend. “She was the one that brought me into it. I started and really enjoyed it. It was the one thing that stuck with me and I kept wanting to go back and practice.” Shane talked about how the connection between his family history and dancing means so much to who he is as a person participating in sports. “It’s nice to be involved in something culturally relevant and I also love it as a sport.”

His resume is an impressive one. His freshman year of high school, he enrolled in the highly successful, Harney-Pender-Keady Academy of Irish Dance, located in Walpole, Massachusttes. He “wanted a more competitive school, and environment.” and during his time at the academy, has met life long friends, and inspiring teachers, like owner Liam Harney. Shane talks very highly of his instructor, “He was really great because he knew where I wanted to be with my dancing, and where I wanted to take it. It was a great student- teacher relationship.” Shane’s great teachers, and motivation brought him to the 2014 Worlds in London, where he placed 13th overall for his solo routine, a personal best. His other achievements including, 1st place at the New England Regional Oireachtas in 2017, and placing 13th at the 2015 North American Irish Dance Championship in Providence, RI. An impressive record for an impressive young man. He also helped his team win it all at the 2013 World Championship in Boston. Winning a title of that magnitude in your hometown is quite triumphant and Shane admits, “it was cool to be in Boston because a lot of people I knew got to come see me, and it was kind of like home field advantage.”

With all his success in dancing, how does Shane find time to do it all? And what keeps him grounded? He continued dancing throughout college as he found it as an escape from the real world. “Without fail, I took forty-five minutes to drive to practice, take a two hour class, and then drive another forty-five minutes home to check out and go dance. It didn’t matter to him as long as he got to do what he loves, dancing. He has since finished graduate school and obtained his masters in speech-language pathology at MGH Institute of Health Professions. As much as Shane loves to dance he knows he must set aside a career for himself in the long run. He does however hope to keep dancing in his life as much as possible. “I would love to teach maybe with a friend later on, I would want to be a part of it and teach future generations.”

There is much excitement as Shane is welcomed back at the Irish Cultural since his last performance in 2017. “It will be exciting...nice to be there [Irish Cultural Centre] in a different setting, and to be performing there...it will be fun to be apart of the musical and dance culture.” Shane referring to performing in the Rhythm in the Night: The Irish Dance Spectacular which was held at the Irish Cultural Centre back in April 2017. His excitement and enthusiasm is backed by his history here at the ICC, where he and his brother played Irish Football as young kids. His brother Conor Fitzgerald continued the sport and is now a member of the Shannon-Blues, who play frequently as a club in the GAA. The brothers’ family has become heavily involved in the ICC, watching Conor’s games and taking in all the performers that represent Irish culture so well. Shane was thrilled when asked to participate, and that he is able to be a part of this amazing musical ensemble “I am looking forward to doing the show and performing at the ICC, and it is just an added bonus there will be people I know there.”

For more information visit www.irishculture.org