| Top 100 Song and Dance
Mariah Carey
In one of the most amazing comebacks in pop music history, Mariah Carey’s
The Emancipation of Mimi debuted at the top of the Billboard charts and
sold over 400,000 albums in its first week of release (May, 2005), making
it the best opening-week sales of her career.
Carey’s last album to top the charts was her 1997 Butterfly.
The kid from Long Island, New York began singing at the age of four and
was writing her own songs by junior high. She moved to New York City right
after high school, working as a waitress to support herself. After only
ten months of odd jobs, Carey met Sony Music president Tommy Mottola at
a party. Mottola was so impressed by her demo tape that he offered her
a record deal with Sony. Her first album climbed the charts to number
one, where it remained for 11 weeks. It produced four number-one singles
and made Carey a star.
The third child of Patricia and Alfred Roy Carey, Mariah takes pride in
her mixed heritage. “I’ve always said that my father is half
Venezuelan and my mother is Irish. But people don’t understand.
They can’t fathom that I’m African-American, Venezuelan and
Irish,” Carey has said.
Carey married Mottola in 1993 and divorced him in 1998. Her first film
Glitter, and its soundtrack were commercial disasters. She left the contract
with Virgin Records in 2002 with a reported $28 million buyout. The album
Charmbracelet tried to put the magic back together but sales were flat.
But Carey has bounced back on a high note, literally. In March 2003 she
hit “the highest note hit by a human” and made The Guinness
Book of World Records. during a live performance of the “Star-Spangled
Banner.”
Now The Emancipation of Mimi has just won Carey three Grammy awards,
including Best R&B Song of the Year (for “We Belong Together”).
Carey is enjoying her comeback. “I am embracing my independence
and celebrating the person that I have become. . . . I am proud and unafraid
to be who I really am, and that’s what the music of this album and
its title reflect,” she told reporters. Carey doesn’t just
have a big voice she has a big heart. She has donated both time and millions
of dollars to organizations such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the National
Adoption Center, VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, and the Fresh
Air Fund among many others. – BE
 Garrett
Coleman
Lynn Coleman may have dragged her son to the dance studio the first time
around, but after one lesson with Theresa Burke, she practically had to
drag him back home. Under the tutelage of Burke, a renowned teacher of
Irish dance, Garrett soon won the North American and All-Ireland Championships.
This past year, he also won the World Championships – for the fourth
time, his first time in the Men’s (16-17) category.
When asked about the process of dance, about what’s pushed him and
inspired him to the point of becoming a world champion, Garrett pauses.
He concedes that it is an abstract element, something indescribable, but
something that comes from within. After careful thought, he answers, “The
will to win.”
Garrett’s spirit isn’t so much competitive as thirsty. He
loves visiting Ireland for the sounds and smells: the live music emanating
from the pubs, the banter, the spontaneity.
“Sometimes people just pull off their shoes and go at it,”
he says, lovingly describing the dance scene in the pubs. Last year, he
took a trip to Mexico with Habitat for Humanity, where he spent a week
living out of a backpack and fixing up dilapidated housing.
Exceptionality is a Coleman gene it seems. Garrett’s two younger
brothers, Kieran and Conor, also practice Irish dance, and his mother
and four aunts were all regional dance champions. His aunt, Catherine,
an astronaut, was a Top 100 honoree in 2003.
Garrett, 17, lives in Ohio with his family. He is third-generation American.
Kevinah Dargan and teacher Mary Kay Heneghan
Kevinah Dargan has achieved what many Irish dancers only dream of. In
2005, the sixth grader won the World Championship in the 10-11 year-old
category. Not only that but Kevinah is also a three time North American
Champion, two time Mid-Atlantic Champion and she placed third at the 2005
All-Ireland Dance Championships.
Perhaps it is her family’s strong heritage that has supplied Kevinah
with a natural talent for dance. Born in March of 1997 in Williamsville,
New York, both of Kevinah’s parents boast direct Irish lineage.
Her father, Kevin was born in Derry and raised in Dublin. Her mother,
Tracy’s, parents are also from Dublin. Kevinah began taking lessons
at the age of four from Mary Kay Heneghan at the Rince Na Tiarna School
of Irish Dance.
It is her experience at Rince Na Tiarna that has resulted in Kevinah’s
development as a dancer. Mary Kay Heneghan, Kevinah’s teacher, has
been instrumental in the refinement of her skills. Heneghan established
Rince Na Tiarna, Gaelic for “Lord of the Dance” in 1986.
Heneghan was herself born of Irish parents. Her father Thomas hails
from Kilmaine, County Mayo and her mother, Mary Breen Heneghan’s
family is from Kilmihil, County Clare. A native of Buffalo, New York,
Mary Kay has watched her school expand to various New York locations.
Mary Kay has also taught for the Trinity Dance Academy in Chicago.
As for Kevinah, her talents extend beyond Irish dance. She is an honor
student at Mill Middle School in Williamsville, New York. She plays the
violin in her school orchestra, and finds time to participate in student
council as well as intramural sports. She is also involved in her community
as a member of Saints Peter and Paul Church where she is an altar server.
“The thing I love about dancing is working hard and reaching new
goals, meeting new friends and traveling,” Kevinah has said of her
dance experience. Her achievements have already inspired her younger sister,
Fiona who recently placed second at the North American Nationals and first
at the Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas.
Despite her success, Kevinah remains down to earth, hard working and a
real team player. -BE
 Martin Hayes
Martin Hayes, Irish fiddler extraordinaire, was born in County Clare
and moved to the U.S. in the 1980’s; he now makes his home in Seattle,
Washington.
The son of P.J. Hayes, leader of the famed Tulla Ceili band, Hayes grew
up playing traditional Irish music with his father, and in recent years
has become known worldwide for his virtuosic, lyrical fiddle-playing.
“Irish music is the expression of the universal muse; it is dance
music, it is music of community and sharing,” says Hayes on the
notes to his landmark album The Lonesome Touch. He goes on to explain
his desire to change and be innovative, while at the same time maintaining
tradition and continuity, all to be tempered by “integrity, humility
and understanding.”
In the world of traditional Irish music there is a constant debate on
the merits of individual performers – whether they stray too far
from the purity of the music, and how truly they represent the experience
and aspirations of Irish traditional musicians who have carried the torch
for the last few hundred years.
Hayes steers a delicate path through his interpretation of the tunes,
sometimes slow and lyrical, sometimes at breathtaking speed and virtuosity.
Whatever the tempo, he has a way of offering an old favorite in a whole
new light, and bringing to our attention the more obscure or forgotten
of tunes.
Martin has four major CDs to his credit, Martin Hayes, Under the Moon, The
Lonesome Touch and Live in Seattle, along with collaborations with fiddlers
such as Kevin Burke. Each one is a gem of interpretation and lyricism,
but he really hit his stride when he teamed up with Chicago-born guitarist
Dennis Cahill, who first joined him on The Lonesome Touch.
Cahill is a guitarist of phenomenal talent, and he and Hayes have a seemingly
telepathic interplay. When performing live they will often play a set
of tunes for half an hour, weaving a hypnotic, flawless spell, and in
the process inspiring and influencing a whole generation of young players.
– Ian Worpole.
Maude Maggart
Maude Maggart’s Irish roots run so deep in her music that they
are part of her repertoire. Bewitching audiences at her recent show, “Comes
Love,” at cabaret’s shrine, the legendary Oak Room in the
Algonquin Hotel in New York City, Maude pays a fitting tribute to her
family heritage.
“My grandparents met and fell in love in 1937 when they both joined
the Johnny Hamp Orchestra,” recounts Maude.
“My grandmother Mildred Greene was a singer and my grandfather Johnny
McAfee played the saxophone,” she continues. “When he first
heard my grandmother trying out a song accompanied by Jimmy Van Heusen,
he said ‘I’m going to marry her.’ They went on to join
the Harry James Orchestra and had great times on the road with Harry James
and his wife, Betty Grable.”
“They are both alive today.” smiles Maude, “and my grandmother,
who shocked her parents by appearing as a dancer in George White’s
Roman Scandals when she was fifteen, loves to reminisce. As prim and proper
as she is today at age ninety five, after a little glass of Chardonnay,
she can still manage to give us all a high kick whether she’s wearing
underwear or not.”
Curvy in a little black dress and wearing high heeled black mules, her
brunette hair cascading in Veronica Lake style, Maude enchantingly evokes
memories of the past.
Recently described by Stephen Holden in The New York Times review of “Comes
Love” as “a shadowy film noir siren” whose voice “is
keen and swooping in phrases that come out as extended sighs,” she
performs songs such as “Deep Purple,” “I’m in
the Mood for Love,” and “Prelude to a Kiss.”
As a baby born in Manhattan, Maude was sung lullabies by her mother, Diane
McAfee, who is also a singer and dancer.
“I would sing songs from Finian’s Rainbow and other Irish
songs,” says Diane, who appeared in Broadway shows such as Anything
Goes and Applause.
“Maude gets her musical talent from her Irish side. Her voice sits
so well in this genre of cabaret, because she was brought up in a house
where we listened to songs from that era.” says Diane. “Her
voice is like a gramophone.”
“I really enjoy singing these songs more than anything else,”
Maude says. “At first it was trial and error, and when it worked
it felt wonderful.”
The torch songs are safe with Maude Maggart. -MCL
Danny O’Flaherty
Danny O’Flaherty has had a year he is not likely to forget. As
it did for so many others across the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina had
a major impact on his life and his livelihood. O’Flaherty’s
Irish Channel, New Orleans’ largest Irish bar, located in the heart
of the French Quarter, was forced to close as a result of the hurricane.
O’Flaherty, a native Irish speaker, had to flee with his family
to Jasper, Texas. And then he had to quit his temporary home in Texas
because it was right in the eye of Hurricane Rita. An exasperated O’Flaherty
told the Irish Voice, “I remember thinking, ‘not another one
coming, I’m heading home to Connemara!’”
O’Flaherty, a noted musician and balladeer, has played all over
the world. Highlights of his career include playing at President Reagan’s
inaugural ball and performing at the National Cathedral for Pope John
Paul II during his visit to the U.S.
His Irish Channel was the premier Irish music venue in the South for over
20 years, the fulcrum of all things Irish in the region, and the reaction
of fellow musicians to its loss has been immense. Danny Doyle and Gabe
Donohue had the brainstorm of producing a CD to raise funds to help reopen
the bar. Groups such as Cherish the Ladies, Makem and Clancy, Black 47
and O’Flaherty himself contributed tracks to “O’Flaherty’s
Rescue.” Despite their best efforts, the Irish Channel will not
be reopening.
O’Flaherty explains why “People don’t really understand
the magnitude of what happened in the Gulf region, it will take about
five years for New Orleans to sustain business again. The place had lost
its soul, its people, and it will take a long time to recover.”
Hurricane Katrina also put paid to plans to open a Celtic Heritage Center
in New Orleans. However, Danny has now devoted himself to establishing
the center in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and hopes to be able to turn the
first sod within two years.
O’Flaherty is also passionate about currach (a uniquely Irish boat)
racing and has played an integral part in developing the sport (including
the world championships) in the U.S. Though he has been through the mill
this past year, Danny O'Flaherty continues to play and compose music and
do what he loves best: spreading and sharing Celtic heritage and tradition
through music, storytelling and sport. -DOK
 Larry Reynolds
From Ballinasloe to Boston, people know the name Larry Reynolds. The
gregarious, genial fiddle player has been a central figure in Irish music
circles for over half a century, and has been perhaps the major influence
in popularizing Irish traditional music throughout New England.
Wherever Reynolds goes, a music session is likely to break out, and
he doesn’t stop playing until the last dance is called, the last
pint poured, the last story told. Tip O’Neill used to call him whenever
the Cambridge pol needed to unwind and sing a few old-style Donegal songs
that only Reynolds and his good friend Seamus Connolly knew.
Political chieftain Billy Bulger relied on Reynolds for many a political
time in South Boston, and he has played for Irish presidents Mary Robinson
and Mary McAleese.
Reynolds left Ballinasloe, Galway as a young man and arrived in Boston
in 1953, fiddle case in hand. He quickly got into the thriving dance hall
scene along Boston’s Dudley Street, playing with musical greats
Paddy and Johnny Cronin, Joe Derrane, Brendan Tonra and others.
In 1975 Reynolds helped form the Boston Chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri
Eireann (Irish Musicians Association), turning it into one of the largest
branches in the group’s worldwide network. He has recorded on several
albums, including the classic “We’re Irish Still,” and
was featured along with his sons in the opening wedding scene of the movie
Blown Away.
For such an affable and public figure, Reynolds has spent his career
shunning the accolades that others try to bestow on him, but that has
slowly changed. A few years ago his Boston friends put together a tribute
dinner for him, and over 1,000 people showed up, many of them traveling
from around the world.
In 2003 Harvard’s Celtic Department honored him at its annual soiree
for “his enormous contributions to Irish culture in Boston.”
He was inducted into the Comhaltas Hall of Fame and was honored by the
Irish Cultural Centre of New England.
While all of this music making was taking place, Reynolds also became
a master carpenter, working on many of Boston’s finest buildings.
He and his lovely wife Phyllis raised five sons and a daughter, all of
whom took up Irish music. Today the Reynolds have nineteen grandchildren
and one great grandchild, enough to form a couple of ceili bands. -MQ.
Peter J. Smith
Despite its recent increase in popularity, Irish dance has faced its
share of hardship. Banned by the English and often ridiculed by society,
Irish dance has struggled to maintain its integrity. No one has been more
instrumental in maintaining the tradition of the art form than Peter J.
Smith.
As the first American certified to teach Irish dance, Peter has trained
thousands of children and young adults. Many of these dancers have gone
on to win multiple World, All Ireland, North American and Regional Championship
titles. Peter was recently elected president of An Coimisiun le Rinci
Gaelacha (the Irish Dance Commission), headquartered in Dublin. In his
position as president, he oversees more than one thousand Irish dancing
teachers worldwide. Smith is the first person born outside of Ireland
to be elected to this office.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to parents from Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan,
Peter is one of nine children. He first learned Irish dance from his sister
Peggy. He and his siblings danced for a branch of the Gaelic League in
New York, and in 1957, with the help of his sister Anne, he opened his
own school.
The Peter Smith School of Irish Dance, which now offers classes throughout
New Jersey, has not only trained thousands of dancers but many of his
students, with Peter’s encouragement, have gone on to establish
their own Irish dancing schools – an important part in keeping the
tradition alive.
Among his many accomplishments, Peter Smith is the founding member of
the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America and has served as
the group’s president. He has also served as the grand marshal of
the Newark, New Jersey, St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
A certified examiner for An Coimisiun, which evaluates candidates applying
for certification as teachers and judges, Peter is the recipient of the
Feile Dea Mheasa Award (Lifetime Achievement Award) 2002, and has received
the Irish-American Citizen Award from the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Peter Smith has inspired generations of young Americans to keep the traditions
of their ancestors alive. Thanks to his teaching and involvement Irish
dance continues to prosper. -BE
Ashley Smith
How many 12th graders can say they’ve had a day dedicated to them?
Irish dance World Champion Ashley Smith can. Boston Mayor Tom Menino declared
August 22, 2004 “Ashley Smith Day” in honor of her accomplishments.
“ I just stood there on the stage thinking this is like American
Idol. It was so unbelievable,” Ashley says of the experience.
Even more unbelievable is how much Smith has accomplished at such a young
age. The eighteen-year-old is the youngest North American All World Dance
Champion to date and one of only three women to win the title in the past
35 years. In April, Smith will defend her title at the World Championships
in Belfast. If she wins, Ashley will be the first woman to win three consecutive
world championships in the history of Irish dance.
In addition to her competitive achievements Ashley has performed with
the Chieftains, the Boston Ballet and Michael Flatley. Smith has recently
received a scholarship from the National Foundation for the Arts to help
finance her college education.
All this passion for Irish dance is hardly surprising considering Ashley’s
background. Her parents, Michael Smith and Noreen Houlihan, are the founders
of the Smith-Houlihan Academy of Irish Dance in Westwood, Massachusetts.
They began directing their daughter’s dance career when she started
dancing at the age of three.
Ashley’s trips to dance competitions in Ireland bring her back to
her roots. While there, she enjoys visiting with her mother’s family
in Kerry, an event Ashley looks forward to even more than dancing.
Though Ashley Smith’s talent for Irish dance has taken her around
the world and gained her much acclaim, she remains able to balance her
life outside of dance.
As a 12th grader at Westwood High School, Ashley is looking forward
to college next fall. Ashley’s friends and family say that her success
has not changed her. Her father Michael describes how Ashley is able to
“keep both feet on the ground” and leads a normal teenage
life of homework and going out with friends. Smith even finds time to
pursue her love of musical theater with parts in the high school play.
Although she’s an accomplished dancer, Ashley is putting any dreams
of a Riverdance style show business career on hold for now in favor of
education. Smith is looking to pursue a college degree in theater with
a minor in business. Right now New York University is Ashley’s top
choice of schools.
Ashley currently lives in Westwood, Massachusetts with her parents and
younger brother Cian, who is also a dancer. – BE
 Gabriella
Wood
Gabriella Wood’s Irish dance career began because of her father’s
pride in his Irish heritage. The 2005 World Champion (12-13 year-old category)
grew up loving the traditional Irish music she heard at family parties,
and enrollment in dance lessons soon followed.
Wood, 13, began dancing at the age of seven, relatively late for the
Irish dance world where lessons begin as early as three or four. Gabriella
has achieved a tremendous amount in her mere four years of practice. When
she first began, Gabriella’s teachers at the Petri School, New York,
were unsure of her dedication. Her mother Linda recalls how at first Gabriella’s
dance teachers didn’t think she was trying hard enough.
After a brief chat with her mother, Gabriella attacked the dance floor
with new force. Her hard work paid off and she made it through five rankings,
all the way to the “open” level in just one year. From there
the only place to go was the World Championships, a goal for which Wood
went to class 4-6 days a week to prepare for.
Even with all the practice, winning the world championship came as a bit
of a shock to the young dancer. According to her parents and teachers,
Gabriella let out such an emotional scream that it brought all the Americans
in the crowd to tears.
Gabriella loves Irish dance for more than the music and the glory. Meeting
new people is one of her favorite things about dance competition. Her
trips around America and to Ireland have not only given her family time
to travel together but resulted in valuable friendships with other young
dancers she meets at competitions.
On top of all her accomplishments as a dancer, Gabriella maintains a straight
A average as a seventh grader at Trinity Regional School in Long Island,
New York. She also enjoys playing soccer for the Northport Royal Blues
soccer team.
Wendy Whelan, Transformed by Dance
Life as a ballet dancer can often mean enduring harsh criticism. For
Wendy Whelan this has meant some unfavorable comments about her weight,
lanky limbs and overdeveloped right side. It is criticism of her prominently
bridged nose that brings her Irish heritage into the equation. The so-called
“Corcoran nose,” a gift from her late maternal Irish grandfather,
has caused much grief to Whelan but it is also a source of pride: this
is one of the things that set Whelan apart, that make her unique.
One of the premier ballerinas in the world, Whelan was the subject of
a recent four-page feature in The New York Times Magazine, which revealed
how her decidedly unorthodox physique was just one more thing for her
to overcome in her career as a dancer. As a child growing up in Louisville,
Kentucky, Whelan loved to move.
She began her dancing career when her mother, a grade-school gym teacher
and basketball coach, sought to find a place for her daughter to exhaust
her seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy. At the age of eight Wendy
made her debut as a mouse in the Louisville Ballet Academy’s production
of The Nutcracker.
Whelan’s burgeoning career was threatened when the dancer was just
twelve and diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis. Doctors sealed her torso
inside a hip-to-shoulder body cast in an attempt to take the curve out
of her spine without surgery. Despite the sixth-month period that Whelan
spent in the cast, she continued to report for after-school ballet classes.
Whelan left home for New York City at fourteen on a scholarship to a five-week
summer course at the School of American Ballet. The class resulted in
an invitation to become a full-time student at the school. Wendy deferred
acceptance until the age of fifteen when she felt ready to make the move.
An anonymous donation from a Louisville benefactor allowed Whelan to complete
high school at the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan.
Two years after she moved to New York she had attracted the attention
of Peter Martins, the head of City Ballet who soon made her an apprentice
dancer.
In January 1986, Whelan became a member of the New York City Ballet’s
corps de ballet and has since gone on to acquire the coveted positions
of Soloist and Principal Dancer. She has toured extensively throughout
the United States, Europe and Asia.
Though Wendy may not look the part of a traditional ballerina, her success
is almost unparalleled. At 38, Whelan is considered old for a dancer and
yet her performances continue to leave her audiences breathless. Perhaps
her artistry is a result of her struggle to compensate for her lack of
a dancer’s physical attributes, maybe even to her Irish grandfather’s
Corcoran nose.
Wendy Whelan married L.A photographer and longtime boyfriend David Michalek
last September. They live in an apartment on New York’s Upper West
Side. -BE
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