Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara MdNulty.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Barbara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Oak Park in the Irish tradition. My mother was a native of County Kerry and my father was from County Mayo. My six siblings and I started dancing at a young age under Pat Roche and then Dennis and Marge Dennehy on the Northside of Chicago.
After dancing for 11 years, I started teaching, and officially started my first Irish Dance class in 1971 in Naperville with 30 students.
More than 45 years later, the McNulty School of Irish has grown to include hundreds of dancers across many class locations throughout metro Chicago, Bloomington and Rockford, Illinois, as well as Dubuque, Iowa. We count thousands of dancers among our alumni, including our six teachers – one of whom is my daughter, Shailagh Gibbons.
We offer both traditional and competitive style dancing for children ages three and older and adults.
The primary focus at the McNulty School of Irish Dance is – and has always been – to teach the love of Irish dance. From our new dancers learning the Irish jig, to our championships dancers perfecting their competitive steps, the McNulty Dancers are always preparing for either a performance or a competition.
The school is recognized by An Coimisiun (the Irish Dance Commission in Dublin Ireland) and the North American and Mid-American Irish Dance Teachers Associations. Because of these accreditations, McNulty Dance students are eligible to compete in sanctioned Irish Dance competitions throughout the world.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Actually, it has been a fairly smooth road throughout the years. As a business owner, I continue to learn and grow as the School evolves, and it’s been an exciting and humbling journey. We have great teachers, all former McNulty Dancers themselves, which makes it easier in terms of working together on practice material, choreographies, performance line-ups, and the overall focus of the School. We try not to set goals beyond what we feel we can achieve, but we also continue to challenge ourselves to do our absolute best.
Please tell us about McNulty School of Irish Dance.
The McNulty School has locations in Arlington Heights, Aurora, Bloomington, Chicago, Crystal Lake, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Libertyville, Naperville, Norridge, River Forest, Rockford, Westchester and Dubuque, Iowa. Classes at all locations are for ages 3 years through 18 years with limited locations offering adult classes. We believe Irish dance is an art form to be cherished, passed on to our children, and shared with the world, and we strive to support and encourage each and every one of our dancers by providing praise, discipline and the opportunity to perform and compete.
Although we teach both recreational as well as competitive dancing, I think I would have to say our performance troupe – which features dancers from both of those groups – is where our hearts are. We love performing and giving back to the community and strive to instill in our dancers the importance of community. We place the same value on performances at concerts and on television as those shows held at senior living centers and local fundraisers.
As such, the dancers have performed on 100’s of small local stages as well as many high profile events. They have opened or taken the stage with such world renowned groups at The Chieftans and most recently did pre-concert performances for The Celtic Women Tour in Dubuque, Peoria, and Rockford.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Irish Dance has always been a part of my life having started at the age of four years old. We were not as active years ago as we are today with Irish Dance so our performances and competitions were limited, but having performed and competed in Ireland during a family trip to visit our grandparents is a very fond memory. They were able to attend a few of our performances and a competition that were fairly local for them. Seeing 6 of their grandchildren who grew up in America Irish dance, play the tin whistle and sing Irish Songs was I’m sure as special for them as it was for us.
Pricing:
- Preschool classes $10.00 per 30 min
- Youth classes $15.00 per 45 min
- Youth combined soft and heavy $25.00 per 105 min
- Adult classes $15.00 per 45 min class
- Adult classes combined soft and heavy $18.00 per 60 min
- Boys only $10.00 per 30 min
Contact Info:
- Address: Main office:
McNulty Irish Dancers
8640 W. Sunset Rd
Niles, Il 60714 - Website: http://www.mcnultyirishdancers.com/about-us
- Phone: 224.639.8644
- Email: mcnultydancers@aol.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/mcnultydancers
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/mcnulty.dance
- Twitter: Twitter@mcnultydancers
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