Dancing duo brothers take world titles

It’s a common story now that families who emigrate encourage their children to take up traditional Irish hobbies so that they have a sense of their background. However, for the Gardiner family, Irish dancing became so much more. Michael and Matthew Gardiner from Clarinbridge in Co Galway started their Irish dancing careers at the age of five in Colorado, where they were born.

“In the States, mom and dad wanted us to have a bit of an Irish background. Anna, our sister, started dancing as it was bigger over there than the Irish music, and soon after myself and Matthew followed in her footsteps,” Michael explains.

The family moved to Clarinbridge in 2006, where the boys continued their dancing career with the Hession School of Dance in Galway. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength, picking up accolades nationally and internationally.

Going for Gold

This past Easter, rather than stuffing their faces with chocolate, the boys jetted off to Montreal in Canada, for what was going to be a weekend they would never forget at the World Championships.

No stranger to the Worlds (as they call it), this was Michael’s 10th time competing and while he won the title last year in London, he knew it would be a tough task to hold on to it for a second year. Meanwhile, it was Matthew’s sixth time at the Worlds, always getting close, but never taking the top spot.

Clearly their hard work paid off, as after making it past the first two rounds, Matthew took the highly sought-after under-16 world champion title, while Michael went on to make it a double for the brothers, winning the men’s under-20 age group, which accounted for two of the three gold medals the Hession School picked up during the competition.

“It was very special to win both gold medals in one year, as I don’t think it had being done by brothers in about 30 years,” Matthew explains.

Hits on stage

The boys aren’t just focused on competitions as they also have made a great name for themselves in the show dancing circle.

When not in school or college, Michael and Matthew make some money performing at shows and weddings. This summer they will be very busy.

“Matthew and I are taking part in a show in Killarney’s INEC this summer, called The Spirit of Ireland, and in Trad on the Prom in Galway as well. These shows, along with the wedding gigs, will take up a good majority of the summer,” he says.

At one wedding performance, a woman visiting from New York for a wedding in Athenry took a video of the boys dancing and uploaded it on her return.

The Michael Jackson meets Irish dancing video went viral, with over 30,000 shares on Facebook.

Their mother, Marianne, is the agricultural science teacher at Gort Community School and is extremely proud of what the boys have achieved and what Irish dancing means to their family.

“I never danced and my husband, Eoin, never danced, but we would’ve always being music people. Having the children bring dancing to the mix is a real plus for our lives as we all just love it. It’s part of who we are now. We are also very grateful to the wonderful Hession teachers for all their hard work and dedication,” she says.

“It’s great to see the lads do something they love and getting paid to do it is something not many young lads get to experience for a summer job. We’re all incredibly proud of all they have achieved and it’s great to see all the hard work pay off.”

The future

When asked what they would like to do after school and college, the boys both admit that dancing on tour is a dream of their’s.

“I’m currently studying architecture at the Univerity of Limerick, so I’ll finish that off. After that, I’d like to go on tour with Riverdance – that’s my goal for now. Further down the line, I hope maybe to become a dance teacher and judge while keeping the architecture going as well,” Michael says.

Matthew, on the other hand, has another few years to do in school.

“I was in transition year this year, so I haven’t anything set in stone. I am interested in science or architecture at this point and want to keep the soccer, basketball and tennis going too. I don’t want dancing to be my full-time job, it can’t be really, but I would like to tour like Michael for a bit as well.”

To see the amount of plaques and trophies these two have accumulated over the past number of years really is something to be admired, and no doubt they will continue to impress on stage for years to come.