Although times have been very tough over the last year, we both have endeavoured to try and utilise our time the best we can, with a positive mindset!
We are incredibly fortunate to have been able to practice through the majority of this pandemic. Our studio is situated in a very quiet and sparse area of Wicklow, which meant we were not in contact with anyone and therefore at very low risk. Also, Ireland is fortunate to recognise “DanceSport” as an official sport, and “Elite Athletes” were permitted to train individually throughout the full lockdown.
Before, as we were constantly on and off planes, we had very little time to spare. Days where we were not travelling, we would do a few hours of technical practice, followed by lunch and then teaching. Literally, eat, sleep, dance, repeat. As we did not have too much free time, and were constantly tired from travelling we devoted very little time to our “performance/cardio” element of training. We would perform finals maximum one time per week.
For us, and our dance career, COVID-19 has been a blessing, we have devoted and made our primary focus on the conditioning of our bodies, to enhance our dancing! We started off doing three finals in a row, (all dances of two minutes) with only 5 minutes break recovery. At the beginning, this was very difficult - now we are addicted! We only recently did 50 dances back-to-back with no rest period - that’s how crazy we are (and we do this at least 3 times per week), and now performance days are the highlight of our week!
A huge highlight that got us through the first lockdown, was receiving the most amazing package from DSI London. Full of our beautiful personalised practice wear (even Sean ventured away from black and added colour to his wardrobe!). I can honestly say, when your practice wear is as beautiful and vibrant as ours, you can never have a bad practice, as you know you always look good!
If we are not in the studio working hard ourselves, as we know everyone has been finding the current situation very difficult, we decided to give the gift of dance, not just to our own students but to everyone free of charge on zoom. We are currently on our fourth lockdown, and we have provided free zooms during the whole of all lockdowns, sometimes even 4 times per week. We feel it’s really important, as we’ve been so fortunate, to try and help others who are struggling mentally and financially.
Our most exciting news of 2020 was receiving an Official letter from The President of Ireland Mr Michael D. Higgins, commending our achievements. Within his letter he praised us on:
“The skill, professionalism, perseverance, commitment and talent”, and applauded us for our results and medals on behalf of Ireland.
The certificate is now proudly displayed on our wall.