Áine Halpin: A brief Biography

Áine Halpin started Irish Dancing at the tender age of 4 years at the O'Rourke School of Irish Dancing in County Clare, Ireland. Her teacher Maureen O'Rourke is, to this day, a well respected and renowned teacher and adjudicator in Ireland and abroad. Áine danced competitively as a solo dancer for 10 years and won prizes at local and county championships. In those pre-Riverdance days few fourteen year-olds were still dancing, so she turned to playing Gaelic football. She was just as successful at this somewhat more robust pastime, representing her county victoriously in two all-Ireland finals.

Six years later, after completing a German & Marketing degree in Waterford and Wolverhampton, she moved to Germany in 1992 and joined The Celtic Cultural Society, a now sadly defunct club for ex-pats and Germans who loved Irish and Scottish culture. Here she rediscovered her love and enthusiasm for Irish dancing, dancing regularly on stage and running occasional courses and workshops. After the success of Riverdance brought Irish dance to a whole new international audience, she was persuaded to found the Halpin School of Irish Dance in 1994. Currently she teaches regular classes and gives workshops and private tuition in Stuttgart and the surrounding regions. Two years after the establishment of the Halpin School of Irish Dance Áine founded the dance group Fáinne which rapidly established itself as one of the best Irish dance groups in Southern Germany. Fáinne is in high demand and performs regularly on stage at various events, including theatre shows, festivals and concerts. For the past three years she has organised her own feiseanna (competitions) which have been a huge success and provided extra motivation for her dancers. In 2000 some of her dancers took part in the German National feis in Munich at which they took second, third and fourth places in the competition. In 2003 five of her dancers took part in the first ever German open feis where competitors came from all over Europe, including Ireland and The Netherlands. Her dancers were extremely successful, winning a hatful of prizes including second, third and fourth places. This confirmation that the students of the Halpin School of Irish Dance are amongst the best in the European region is a source of some pride for Áine. Her most recent endeavour was adjudicating a class feis at the Rince Tír na N'Óg School of Irish Dancing in Munich, Germany.

Áine is an associate member of An Coimsiún Le Rinci Gaelacha (World Governing Body of Irish Dance based in Dublin) and in November 2001 attended the historical first ever meeting of European Association of Irish Dance Teachers affiliated to An Coimsiún held in the Netherlands.