We are so happy with our dancers’ performances at the 2024 North American Championships held in Grapevine, TX!  They worked extremely hard leading up to the event and performed well under pressure in large/highly competitive groups, against dancers from overseas as well as Austrailia, Canada and Mexico! Some of the highlights were:

• A very special shout out to Brielle Maguire, 1^st place, Girls U13A Champion! She has stayed in the top 3 since attending her first North Americans as an Under 8— what an amazing track record!!
• A huge congrats to Ava Krueger, 4^th place in Girls U16B and Fiona Marino, 5^th place, Ladies U18A, for reaching the podium for their second time each at a North Americans…fantastic dancing!
• Another special acknowledgement goes to our podium-placing Under 16 Team of eight who came in 4^th. We selected this team to attend, based on their performance at the Regionals, and they did not disappoint—excellent job! 

Overall, there were many personal best performances and placements. We had 76% of our dancers recall, 7 of which were top 10 and 17 in the top 20. 😊  Additionally, 38% of our dancers placed highly enough to qualify for the World Championships in Dublin in 2025—our best yet!  

Find the list of participating dancers and summary of results here.

We are so happy to have had 18 solo dancers take the stage in Glasgow to represent Team Murray and New England USA at the 52nd World Championships. We were so proud of their many stand out performances over the week, but we are especially proud of their hard work in the lead up! Their positive attitudes and energy throughout the whole process was amazing – such a great group. Looking forward to keeping the momentum going for NAIDC 2024 in Grapevine, Texas!

WORLD GLOBE

5th – Brielle Maguire, Girls 12-13

SET DANCE RECALL MEDALS

14th – Maggie Krein, Ladies 20-21
23rd – Rowan Wong, Girls 11-12
24th – Fiona Marino, Girls 17-18
26th – Ava Krueger, Girls 15-16
39th – Kelsey Lema, Girls 11-12
45th – Maeve Marino, Girls 13-14

Earlier this month, 14 of our dancers traveled to Killarney, Co. Kerry for the 2024 All Ireland Championship. Aside from the World Championships, the All Ireland Championship is regarded as the most prestigious and elite competitions in all of Irish dancing.^[a] Of our 14 dancers, Team Murray returned with 5 dancers in the top 20 and 7 World Qualifiers! Our dancers represented Team Murray exceptionally well, with great dancing and attitudes–we are so very proud! (Click the title to read more)

Congratulations to our dancers who participated in the 2023 New England Region Oireactas in Hartford, CT! 

We had five New England Regional champions and four runners-up—a total of 15 soloists stood on the podium! And 21 of our soloists earned the right to compete at the World Championships in Glasgow this spring.

Our Traditional Set dancers included two champions, and two runners-up with a total of 6 dancers on the podium. On the final day, we saw two of our teams take the top of the podium as champions with three runners-up and a total of 14 teams on the podium!

This was a very exciting year with another strong set of results for our school.  We are so very proud of each of our dancers who competed at this year’s New England Oireachtas. It is always a joy seeing their hard work come to life on stage! 

Special congratulations go to all our 1^st place winners this year, including

• U10 Championship—Rowan Wong (x3)
• U12 Championship—Brielle Maguire (x3)
• U13 Championship – Maeve Marino
• U18 Championship—Charlotte McDaniel
• U20 Championship – Maggie Krein (x 2)
• U8 Traditional Set—Leah McCaig
• U13B Traditional Set-Leia Kim
• U15 Girls 6-Hand Team B—Nora B, Cailin H, Reis F, Scarlett P, Abby P and Darla W
• U15 and over Girls 6-Hand Team B—Kassidy H, Katelynn H, Grace K, Fiona M, Hannah M and Abigail W

What a great Oireachtas for the Murray Academy dancers! 

Please see the full results summary here for all the highlights, including the dancers who are now qualified to compete at the World Championships in Glasgow this April.