Dancing couples under strict orders

ON Saturday night, November 26, 11 West Clare dancing couples will take to the dance floor in the Armada Hotel in aid of the Doonbeg charity Help the Cherven Orphans.
The event will be along the lines of Strictly Come Dancing. Headed up by Edel Smith from Doonbeg, who is a primary school teacher at Carrigaholt National School, the charity is aiming to build a halfway house for teenagers and young adults in Belarus. Each couple will represent a West Clare parish and while some of those due to take to the dance floor are noted dancers, a few have yet to be lauded for their dancing skills.
The couples are Marianne Hackney and Michael Liddane (Cross); Biddy and Fintan Ryan (Carrigaholt); Dermot Tubridy and Marie Galvin (Cooraclare); Joe Garry and Bernie Kelly (Cree); Caroline Kennedy and Conor Whelan (Doonbeg); Carmel Muldoon and David Russell (Kilkee); Conor Crowley and Eimear Considine (Kilmihil); Eamon and Mary Keane (Kilmurry McMahon); Tara Flynn and Paddy Costelloe (Kilrush); Edel Greene and Anthony Morrissey (Kilmurry Ibrickane) and Gordon Kelly and Ruth Vaughan (Miltown Malbay).
“They have been meeting two or three times a week and then on Saturday mornings we have group training,” Edel Smith explained. “Couples have been meeting up in their own time as well. Christina Cawte-Liddane is doing the choreography. She has even had couples coming to her house on a Sunday. There has been a huge effort by everyone involved. All routines have their fancy lifts or props of some sort. They are great fun and very entertaining. Especially Joe Garry’s attempts,” Edel Smith chortled.  
The various couples will reveal their versions of tango, meringue, jive, swing, cha cha, salsa, samba, flamingo, pasadoble and Bollywood.
Each couple will have two dances and there are two group routines, with a final dance-off between the lads and ladies. Every cent raised will be donated to the building of the halfway house in Belarus.
“We are building a halfway house for the young adults who are in institutional care with no hope of ever getting out without some care system being set in place,” Ms Smith explained. “Without this house, they will spend their lives in institutional care, going from the baby orphanages to children’s orphanage and then on to the adult asylums. All they need is a someone to believe in them and their ability to live out in society. It is what they all dream and wish for but they themselves have no control over their lives and the direction they are headed in,” she added.
During the interval, local dancers will perform the brush dance, zumba, and ballroom dancing.  The night’s dancing will start at 8pm and all couples will be scrutinised by a panel of judges.
For more information on the event, visit Facebook or call 087 8181263.