Jewish Eyes Are Smiling

By Jill Duff-Hoppes

When it comes to Irish dancing, Danielle Allen is nothing if not persistent.

The Winter Springs teenager began taking lessons at the age of four but, in recent years, faced two major obstacles that nearly derailed her dance journey. The first was the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second was a broken ankle. Both times, however, Danielle managed to get back on track with her fancy footwork.

Danielle’s unique heritage led to her interest in the niche world of Irish dancing. The 15-year-old is Irish on her father’s side of the family and Jewish on her mother’s. Her dad, Paul, immigrated to the United States from Ireland when he was a young man.

Despite Danielle’s ancestry, mastering the jigs and reels of Irish dancing didn’t come naturally.

“I really had to work for it,” says Danielle, a freshman at Lyman High School. “And then, once I got about three years into it, that’s when I got into the flow of things. That’s when I started winning a lot of awards for dancing.”

In 2019, Danielle earned a first-place award at a United States qualifier for the World Irish Dancing Championships – which meant she was set to travel to Ireland in 2020 to compete. That would have been her first visit to the Emerald Isle, but the competition was canceled because of the pandemic.

In the ensuing months, she lacked motivation and wondered whether dancing was still a good fit for her. However, Danielle’s parents encouraged her to continue.

“My family knew I was talented,” she says. “They also knew that I could make something out of it, so they pushed me to dance again.”

Danielle placed second at a regional Irish dance competition in December. She previously qualified to compete in the World Irish Dancing Championships in Ireland, but the competition was canceled during the pandemic.

After a year-long break, Danielle resumed dancing for a few months... only to break her ankle. After that roadblock, she stopped dancing for another year. Yet every time Danielle saw other Irish dancers perform, she felt a pull to jump back in. Most of all, she missed the camaraderie with her fellow dancers.

“I got back into it because I felt like my life was boring without it,” says Danielle, who trains at an award-winning Irish dance academy. “Definitely the social life is what keeps me in it – having friends at the studio and being able to connect with them.”

In December, Danielle placed second in her division in a regional competition despite not having competed in several years. Her immediate dance goal is to keep improving until she’s performing as strongly as she did in 2019, before the pandemic and injury setbacks.

Danielle has even bigger, long-range dance goals. She would like to eventually audition for Riverdance, a world-renowned theatrical show featuring traditional Irish dance and music. And she’d love to work as a dancer at Raglan Road, an Irish pub and restaurant at Disney Springs

A Heart For Service

A student at Lyman’s Academy of Engineering, Danielle wants to pursue a career as an environmental engineer. Down the line, she can envision herself opening her own studio to teach kids the art of Irish dancing.

Danielle has even found a way to combine her interest in dance with her Jewish ancestry. For her bar mitzvah project, she raised nearly $3,000 for Traveling Tutus, an organization that donates dance attire to underprivileged children around the world. In addition to dancing, Danielle is also active in several Jewish teen organizations.

One thing Danielle hasn’t figured out, though, is how to get her father out on the dance floor, too. Paul, a teacher at Lyman, was required to take Irish dancing classes during his primary school days in Ireland. These days, Paul insists on being a spectator only.

“I’ve tried to get him to dance, and he will not touch it,” Danielle says with giggle. “But he likes watching me.”

Danielle earned this huge trophy and an opportunity to compete in Ireland before the COVID-19 pandemic and an ankle injury nearly ended her dancing career.

Story was originally published in print in Spring 2023.