Irish dancers from colleges and universities from several states got a chance to strut their stuff Saturday at Villanova University as Nova’s Irish dance team hosted its annual intercollegiate festival. The field house, more often host to basketball games and other athletic events—and, yes, I’ll admit, I saw Cozy Morley there once—instead echoed to the sound of clattering hard shoes as all the teams staked out a patch of gym floor to practice.
A competition it was, yes, but for these dancers it was really more of a chance to get together and have a good time with each other. That they all just happened to share an interest in Irish dance was icing on the cake. Each team that competed was treated to uproarious applause from dancers from all the other teams.
One particular hit was the Villanova dancers’ clever take on music from The Lion King, complete with animal masks. Some dance teams went more traditional, but one of the most interesting things about the intercollegiate competition is that anyone could dance to anything. I’m not sure klezmer has made an appearance yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did someday.
If you couldn’t be there, well, sorry we missed you, but here are some photos to tide you over ’til next year.
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