The McCormack-Fay School of Irish Dancing 40th Anniversary Dance Show
(2 ½ hours of Irish Dance, Music and Song)

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Gráinne McCormack teaching Irish
Dance the McCormack-Fay School of Irish Dancing has a big show coming
up Monday 27th October 2003. Grainne and her son Fergal Fay are
putting on a show in the prestigious Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Over
200 dancers will take part in the show. All the finishing touches are
put in place and tickets are selling fast.

Ireland's prime minister Bertie Ahern and Dublin's Lord Mayor have
been invited to this show and have confirmed their acceptance of the
invitation, stating that they are delighted to be part of this
fantastic celebration.

Fergal's sister, Dearbhla Fay, who dances with Riverdance, is coming
home from the Asian tour of Riverdance especially to perform at this
celebration and his father Martin Fay (ex-member of the legendary
Chieftains) and a group of Dublin based musicians will be playing at
it also. The second part of the show is technically Fergals
choreography, assisted by his mother, and is for the more senior
dancers, while the first part of the show will be danced in the more
traditional style.

Grainne McCormack established her school of Irish Dancing 40 years
ago, this year, and her school must surely be one of the largest in
the Irish Dancing field.
The pupils range form 2-25 years of age. An experienced teacher and
adjudicator herself, Grainne can readily name over 50 former pupils
that are now successful teachers and 10 who are adjudicators today in
Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, U.S.A., Australia and even as far as
Saudi Arabia. She has held the position of Secretary with An
Comhdhail numerous times and is a member of the Panel of Examiners.

During her competitive career, she won innumerable awards at
feiseanna throughout Ireland and the U.K. She set-a-record by winning
8 "All-Ireland Championships" – a record that was unequalled for more
than 30 years. As a teenager, Grainne was the solo step-dancer with
the widely acclaimed "Gael-Linn Cabaret" and spent many years touring
Europe and the U.S. in the company of other popular entertainers such
as Liam Devally, Kathleen Watkins and the virtuoso fiddle-player,
Sean Maguire-to name just a few of the cabaret members. Grainne's
faultless footwork can be heard on a series of records released by
Gael Linn to cater specifically for students and teachers of Irish
Step dancing.
During the 60's three well known musicians joined a `reformed Gael-
Linn' cabaret, namely Sean Potts, Paddy Moloney and Martin Fay, who
were also members of the famous Sean O'Riada's folk ensemble until
his untimely death. As is well known, the three went on to become the
founder members of the internationally acclaimed group "The
Chieftains".

Grainne and Martin met through their involvement with the cabaret and
married in September 1968. They had two children, Fergal (now 30) and
Dearbhla (now 25). Grainne's 30 years record of 8 All-Ireland
championships win was broken by her son Fergal. He equalled his
mother's record and went on to win his 10th "All-Ireland" in 1994 all
of this at only 21years of age. That was the day Fergal hung up his
competitive dancing shoes. As once asked by a German TV host "would
you have liked to win more titles?", his response was "yes, but I'm
glad to reach double figures in titles wins….triple figures could be
a little harder on the knees". Along with the ultimate dance champion
title with An Comhdhail, Fergal also won 15 Dublin and Leinster Dance
championships consecutively. He then had the time to follow his
parent's footsteps and go into the show-biz industry. He has been the
Lead Dancer and choreographer in many of the top dance shows
throughout the world and is the `Dance Director & Choreographer' for
Disneyland Paris for the past 3 years. He has appeared many times on
national and International TV shows promoting Irish dance and
culture. He starred in the hit movie "The Magical Legend of the
Leprechauns" as Lead Dancer along with Whoopi Goldberg, Roger Daltry
(Leader Singer with rock group The Who) and Colm Meaney.

Fergal received his Teacher's Diploma in Irish Dancing in August 1998
and has started to teach with Grainne, adding another dimension to
this famous class. Also an accomplished professional drummer for the
past 15 years, he studied under the watchful eye of the legendary
Jimmy Doyle at the Federation of Musicians, Dublin. He has toured
with his bands and as a session-drummer throughout Europe and Asia
and has recorded 2 rock-albums.

Fergal's 10 All-Ireland title wins was surely going to be unequalled
for a long, long time. Or so it seemed but his sister, Dearbhla had
other ideas. She shattered this record by winning 13 "All-Ireland &
International Dance Championships". This takes the family total to 31
All-Ireland Gold medals. At present, she is touring with Riverdance-
Liffey Company in China, Japan & Malaysia after dancing with
Riverdance -Lagan company for the past 5 years touring Mexico, Canada
and U.S.A. Like her brother, she has enjoyed the travelling, the
buzz, meeting other wonderful dancers and performing in wonderful
venues every night. She hopes in the near future to join the family
tradition in becoming a dancing teacher.

A final point of interest: -when Michael Flatley was invited to take
a company of dancers to Indonesia and Borneo to perform the magic of
Riverdance-The Show with the female lead at the time Jean Butler,
Michael was unable to do so because of his busy schedule. He
suggested that he had the perfect duet to dance as Leads- Fergal and
Dearbhla. So great was the response from sponsors and the audience,
this has resulted in dancing at State and Presidential ceremonies in
Asia in 1995-97. Needless to say that the promotion of Irish Dancing
is in safe hands (and skilled feet) for a long time to come as a
result of this dedicated and talented family. They love to share
their knowledge and experiences of Irish dancing with anybody
interested in this phenomenally successful aspect of Irish culture.

The McCormack-Fay School of Irish Dancing has performed at various
Folk Dance Festivals throughout the World, State functions, with The
Chieftains, at many Lord Mayor Balls, Olympia Theatre and The Point
Depot Dublin to mention but a few. Up and coming dancers from this
very famous school are in constant demand and it is no surprise that
80-100 performances are danced annually, both home and abroad.

For anyone who wants to write/comment to the show a special e-mail
address has been created: celticdancefusion@...

Tickets are available at the Olympia Theatre Box Office
Doors will open 7 pm sharp
The Show commences 7.30 pm sharp

Linda
NL