The Huntley Farmside

              untlev
Farmside
Thursday November 16, 2000
Volume 40 No. 44
Your hometov^n nev^spaper
© 2000 Press-Republican Newspapers
Step sisters
by Sue Bohme
Staff writer
Mary Kate Manning, 8
Elizabeth Manning, 6
The girls stand tall, heads held high, their arms down at their sides, looking straight ahead, waiting. Then the music starts and their feet false off in a whirlwind of tips, steps, trebles and hops. The Maiming girls love Irish Step dancing - and it's a good thing, too, because they are going to be doing it for a long time.
"If you ask my kids they wUl tell you that [dance lessons] are required until they are 18, then they can drop it - the same with piano," said their mother, Eileen Manning. "Interest in piano comes and goes, but with the Irish Step, I don't have to cram it down their throats. They really love it."
The girls, residents of the unincorporated area between Huntley and Marengo, began lessons at different times. Ann, 11, started tak¬ ing lessons five years ago; Maggie, 9, and Mary Kate, 8, followed a year later; and Elizabeth, 6, took it up two years ago. Between them, they spend three and a half hours in dance lessons every Sunday afternoon at the Mayer School of Irish Step in Dundee. But their mother said they are dancing constantly. They dance across the kitchen to get a drink, they dance while they wait for their mom to get off the phone, they even teach their friends how to dance dur¬ ing recess.
The girls have performed at the Irish Fest in IXmdee, McNaUy's Irish Pub in St. Charles, the Parkside Pub in Huntley, many nursing homes and Spring Hill Mall.
They also have taken part ui several impromptu performances. The Mannings attended a performance of the Irish band "GaeHc Storm" at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Aurora. During one song the band asked audience members to dance along.
"With all the advanced dancers there, it was Elizabeth (who had taken only a few lessons at that point) who got up and danced. They put a spot hght on her and she did her best," Maiming said.
Another time they were at a restaurant and an Irish band was playing.
"We were just there to eat in our regular clothes and stuff and there was this song and we got up and danced," Maggie said.
The girls have also been to several Fies, or competitions. The dancers are judged on more than just their dance skills. The girls have to have dance costumes, have the right shoes for the dance they are performing and their hair has to be properly curled. Eileen used to put 50 to 60 special curlers in the hair of each of the girls before a performance. They had to sleep in the curlers, and some¬ times even wear them to school. Ann said all the spiky curlers made them look Mke Lady Liberty. Now the girls have wigs and, a few pokes with a hair pin notwithstanding, they are much happier
Mary Kate said she would encourage others to learn Irish danc¬ ing.
"If s fun and you get to learn lots of stuff and I Uke it when you're up on stage," she said.
Maggie thinks "if s cool to do something different from everybody else."
Ann said, "Itis a lot of fun, but itis also a big responsibility to learn it, to practice and to get it right."
And, while Elizabeth clearly enjoys dancing, she said 18 seems Uke if s a long way off.