Team gears up for World Championships in Irish dancing

MERCER COUNTY, N.J. (FOX 29) - The World Championships in Irish dancing is right around the corner.

FOX 29 Photojournalist Bill Rohrer has the story.

Teachers Justin and Erinn Kotelnicki have their dancers in great shape for the competition.

"It is amazing. It is the best of the best dancers. There are no mediocre dancers. It is the best. Everybody is pushing, everybody wants do well at that competition," Bridget Foti said.

The Kotelnicki School of Irish Dance qualified four soloists for this year's competition. Reese Hollister, Bridget Foti, Kiersten Kelly and Kathleen Vernon. They'll be joining 12 dancers in the team competition in Greensboro North Carolina.

Justin knows firsthand what these dancers are going through. He competed and spent ten years dancing with Michael Flately's Lord of Dance.

"They probably have their steps and their stage routine running through their mind before they go to bed and the first thing when they wake up. Then a million times throughout the day," Kotelnicki said.

For Kathleen Vernon, it's a million and one.

"When I am in class, my friends are always telling me to stop kicking their chair. My feet are constantly moving and I can't keep still," Vernon said.

These Dancers train like professional athletes.

Reese Hollister has danced for over ten years.

"It is cool. It is a physical activity like a sport and a dance which is kind of like an art at the same time," he said.

It's a classroom full of determined students.

"I think it teaches them at a young age that if you set goals for yourself and if you are really willing to work hard there is nothing you can't achieve," Erinn Kotelnicki said.