Author Spotlight
Ada Lillie Worthington
Sophomore Millie Byerley stood anxiously huddled around by her friends on the carpeted floor of the ballroom, only feet away from the podium that would determine her fate.
If Millie placed first at this Irish Feis dancing competition, she would move up to the highest level of Irish dancing worldwide: Open Championships. Open Championships is what Millie woke up at 6 a.m. for every competition day, and it’s what brought her to her studio, O’Riada Manning, for nine hours every week for classes and rehearsals.
At this specific competition hosted by O’Riada Manning last May, the dancers had two opportunities to perform, earning an initial ranking between routines before the final standing was announced — Millie was originally in third. Millie stood — nerves flooding through her body — while she waited for the announcement hoping that her correct execution of each move would keep her on the podium.
The announcer started speaking, “Third place goes to…”
Ok, that’s not me.
“Second place goes to…”
Ok, still not me.
“First place… Millie Byerley!”
Millie was in shock. Had her Slip Jigs and Treble Jigs really been that good? Her friends cheered loudly for her as she walked up to the top podium. She stepped up on the highest platform of the podium, grinning while the announcer placed a gold sash stating “O’Riada Manning Championships First Place” over her head and handed her a golden trophy.
Just like that, Millie was launched into a new era of Irish dancing. Her performing credits include the annual Kansas City Irish Fest, St. Patrick’s day events, a Maverick’s hockey game and an event at the Kauffman Center.
Millie has been Irish Dancing at O’Riada Manning since she was 5 but wasn’t on the top level of seven until winning that competition. The tears Millie shed out of fear at her first Irish dance classes with her dance teacher Joseph Manning seem miniscule compared to how far Millie has come today.
“It is funny because when she started with [Joseph] as a teacher, she was very hesitant when she was little,” Millie’s mom Acacia Byerley said. “She’d always come up to him and cry because she’d get really overwhelmed and he’d laugh and he used to call her the weepy one. It’s funny to see how far she’s come from the first few dances that she did with him to now.”
Millie qualified for the Open Championships after two first place finishes at other competitions the year prior.
“She’d been looking like an Open Champion in class for a couple of months and so I was waiting for it,” Manning said. “She was close for a while. She just kept knocking on the door.”
The levels of Irish dancing consist of First Feis, Beginner One, Beginner Two, Novice, Prize Winner, Preliminary Champions and Open Championships. Each level has different criteria that dancers have to meet in order to move up through the different levels.
As a dancer reaches higher levels of Irish dancing, it becomes harder for the dancer to move up. For example, the transition from Novice to Prize Winner could be harder for a dancer since the qualification for Novice is to place first, second or third in one dance but in order to move up to Prize Winner, the dancer must place first in every dance.
“I’m really proud that I’m in Open Championships,” Millie said. “I actually qualified for the Open Championship level in Kansas City, so that was special because you’re up against people who have qualified and placed at world competitions, which are extremely hard to get into. So it was just very special that I placed that round.”
Every year, Millie attends eight to ten feiseanna a year located around the country. Last year, she attended competitions in places like New York, New Mexico and Florida.
“Each kid does three dances [in Open Championships] and it can be a variation of the main four types [of dance] as well as one that’s more personalized,” Millie said. “They usually take about three hours per group. It definitely makes for a long day.”
As part of the Open Championships level, Millie now competes against more dancers and will have longer competition schedules.
“[The morning of a competition] I have to wake up usually around 6 a.m. which is not very fun, but I wake up and I get ready,” Millie said. “Then my mom helps me because I wear a wig [that is] really curly. And so my mom will help me put that on and then a full face of makeup on as well and my solo dress which is really the dazzle that I wear for competitions.”
Although the new level comes with many challenges, Acacia and Manning believe that she’s ready.
“I think she is very determined when she puts her mind to it,” Acacia said. “She has decided that this is what she wants. She really goes after her goals. She knows what she needs to do to get the results that she wants.”
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