Coralstown dancers win gold at National Community Games

Two young dancers from Coralstown are celebrating all-Ireland success following the National Community Games finals.

Roisin Dalton and Olga Turlacov, who are in sixth class at Coralstown NS, and are members of Elevate Academy of Dance in Mullingar, competed in the national U13 Group Dance Competition on Saturday September 6, and brought home gold medals.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner last week, as they prepared were heading to a dance session, they explained that their routine was a lyrical dance, “interpretation of music”. They hadn’t gone to Carlow with high expectations of doing well, though they had put in serious hours of practice and preparation.

As a result, when the judges announced the results in countdown from fourth place to first, they initially thought they were out of the running.

Roisin’s mother Nicki said that there were 16 groups from across the country in the same category, several with as many as 20 members, which made the task that more daunting for the Coralstown duo. “When the judges announced fourth place and third place, we thought ‘that’s it now’. We weren’t expecting first place. Then they announced second place was from Longford, then they said not too far away from Longford [about the winners], and the two girls were standing there looking at each other for about 30 seconds because they were a bit confused – they didn’t know it was us. Then Olga turned around to Róisín and said, ‘I think that’s us!’.”

It was them, and they were, naturally, delighted.

Roisin and Olga thanked their families for their support in their dancing, and their tutors at Elevate, where Olga has recently joined Roisin in the elite team. Haley Mulvaney, who is also with Elevate, did the choreography for the girls, and they put in huge hours practising themselves. Roisin and Olga plan to keep up dancing together and say they will likely enter more competitions.