INSTRUCTORS

Our goals are to provide students with the skills of traditional Irish Step Dancing and confidence when performing. At the end of every class, we want our students to leave with a feeling of accomplishment, motivation to practice, and eagerness to come back and continue to advance their knowledge and skills. With our combined experience and passion for teaching and sharing our love of Irish dance, we take pride in sharing our experiences and love with our dancers.

SARAH DONNELLY, OWNER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Sarah started dancing when she was 8 years old with the Carrigan School of Irish Dance in Helena, MT. Eventually her dance school merged with the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance from Chicago and Milwaukee, and became the Tiernan Irish Dancers. She performed in Helena for several years and traveled to different states for competitions.

After graduating from Capital High School she moved to Missoula to attend classes at the University of Montana. Upon settling into her Missoula life, she founded the Missoula Irish Dancers.

During her sophomore year Sarah decided to study abroad in Cork, Ireland. While abroad she took lessons from renowned teachers Peggy McTeggart and Sheila Hayes.

Currently she not only teaches for the Missoula Irish Dancers, but she is also the instructor for the Céilí class offered at UM for the Irish Studies program.

THERSA O'KEEFE

Theresa is from the eastern Iowa area and is a clinician at Missoula Therapist. After moving to Missoula she was excited to discover that we have a local Irish dance school. She grew up dancing with what is now called the Mullane Godley Irish Dance Academy. Theresa attended several feiseanna for solo competitions when she was younger and then started focusing more on competitive ceilidh and performing as she got older.

ANNE-MARIE CUNNINGHAM, TCRG/ADCRG

Anne-Marie lives in Austria and is the owner of the Anne-Marie Cunningham School. She travels to Missoula several times a year for workshops and uses to zoom to participate in weekly classes with the Missoula Irish Dancers.

She studied dancing in London with Theresa Kinsella and won many regional and national titles and recalled at the World's regularly. In 1996 she joined the original cast of Riverdance. After touring with the company for 6 years she passed the TCRG exam.

Anne-Marie began assisting in a school in London and then taught most weekends in various cities in Europe. She was also regularly teaching in Germany, Prague, Austria and Poland.

She organized the first coimisiun school in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 and taught there over the course of 3 years. Anne-Marie was asked to return to Riverdance again for a brief stint, which is how she ended up in Austria.

From 2008 - 2011 Anne-Marie was President of RTME, the European equivalent of IDTANA and has since remained as an officer of the committee. She was also an elected member of the coimisiun for 4 years attending meetings on a monthly basis in Dublin, making decisions on the rules and regulation of Irish dancing worldwide. Anne-Marie now has her ADCRG and is now an adjudicator in various countries.

CORMAC O SE´, TCRG/ADCRG

We are associated with Cormac O Sé and O'Shea Irish Dance in Minnesota.