This article is from page 75 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 75 JPG
A QUARTER of a century of the John Fennel School of Dancing has produced thousands of new dancers, hundreds of medals and 26 shows sold out to national audiences.
All this from a 19-year-old who 25 years ago cycled throughout the west Clare peninsula teaching dancing in small schools.
Now children from all over Clare come to the Cooraclare Community Centre to practice for sell out shows and extra performances to celebrate the school’s silver anniversary, as the west Clare phenomena that is Hell for Leather.
Founder John Fennell maintains the success of the venture is down to hard work, support of parents and the dedication of the children.
The Cooraclare man learned to dance from the couple he credits with bringing step dancing to west Clare – Eugene and Pat Phillips.
“Everything that has branched off since 1s a protégé of them,” he said.
From a family of eight his mother was determined to get half of the family dancing and John hasn’t stopped since.
As he reached the senior classes with the Phillips, John began teach- ing the junior dancers.
From there he began preparing dancers for competition in his own Ce) b iter
At just 19 he was invited to teach step dancing in some small west Clare schools.
“*T often left at half eight in the morn- ing and cycled to Kilbaha to do aclass and then on to Doonaha. I would cy- cle to Doonbeg for an evening class and then on to Cooraclare for an older class. The legs would be nearly gone of me,’ he smiled, and well he should, as it was through dancing he first met his wife.
From these early classes, teaching Irish dancing and step dancing, he
successfully saw his pupils win 38 Munster titles, 35 All-Irelands and six internationals.
Despite this success he believed the future was not in figure dancing and pulled all dancers from competition to concentrate on set dancing.
He was told this would not work but the Cooraclare man thought dif- Keone
“Then I began to think why pick eight dancers and put them into an All-Ireland and leave the others. Pri- mary kids were also leaving dancing when they left school so I thought I’d organise classes for teens.
“Each area then had a class, and I choreographed a piece for each area. For a joke I got them all together in Cooraclare so they could all dance.”
It was at that show that Pat Lineen pointed out to John he had “the mak- ings of a good show”. So with two new pieces added, Hell for Leather was launched in Glor in September Aves
Of the 193 dancers to take to the stage that fateful night, 17 remain with John today.
“They are all teaching with me and passing on the trade to the begin- ners,” he said.
This core group are also instru- mental in getting the new Hell for Leather show to Glor on October 29 and 30, and ready again for a special OS iekientenee es
This time around it is 176 five to 13 year olds that will entertain audi- Neen
“It not only keeps them fit but they also have 170 friends they wouldn’t otherwise have. They have learned how to dress themselves, how to get ready for a show, how to hang up their uniforms, respect for others and punctuality,” said John of his newest stars.