A local 10-year-old dancer is returning home with a medal from the 2017 World Irish Dancing Championships.
Three dancers from the Cornell School of Irish Dance in Chatham, were in Dublin, Ireland this past week for the competition.
Their coach, Devin Cornell, says each of the dancers competed within their age groups on separate days. The youngest of the group, 10-year-old Graham Vandernaalt, ended up with a high ranking in his division.
"He placed 13th, which is absolutely amazing," says Cornell. "He's the 13th best 10-year-old Irish dancer in the world, so we're super proud of him."
As for the other two dancers, 12-year-old Andrea Dick and 17-year-old Emma Howitt, Cornell says they weren't called back to the stage. However, both dancers did better this year than they did in 2016, which shows improvement.
"There's about 200 competitors in each competition and they recall the top 50, and both of those girls were just on the outside," he says. "It's still a very impressive accomplishment."
After spending so much time dedicated to the competition, Cornell says the dancers will "wind down" by preparing for their spring show.
"All of the students in the school will be taking part -- it's called 'Lord of the Disney'," he says. "It'll be kind of a montage of all the great Disney songs performed in Irish dance."
After the show, it's back to training for competitions.
Cornell says they have about eight dancers who will head to New Orleans at the beginning of July to compete in the 2017 North American Irish Dance Championships.
