Past Editions (History of Summer School)

The idea of summer school appeared in spring 2001. Rinceoirí group stabilized to that degree, it consists from those people interested in Irish dancing, which wanted to develop their dancing faster. In regard to Rinceoirí organized Irish dance courses for public, the group became socially closer and that is how the idea of summer school evolved.

First summer school was partly training camp for Rinceoirí, which was led by Tereza Bernardová. In parallel with that, Václav Bernard was teaching the Ceilí dance workshop for public. Whole event had a venue in beautiful countryside in village Sloup in north Bohemia within proximity of Luž mountains, in holiday areal Jiskřička, in date the 25th-30th of August 2001. Whole Rinceoirí participated together with other 35 interested people from public, and for some of them it was first step towards their membership in Rinceoirí.

         

The following year situation became more mature, and we decided to invite foreign teachers, to generally help to improve the level of Irish dance. We kept venue in Prague that year, and offered it to wide spectrum of interested people. Our invitation to come and teach at the 2nd summer school accepted Sean Kilkenny and Mary Sweeney. Other teachers were Tereza Bachová and Tereza Bernardová. In total there were 52 people participated, 30 from the Czech Republic, 18 from Poland, 2 from Slovakia and one from Spain and Canada.

The third summer school was held in Prague in date the 17th-22nd of August 2003. In this year we started cooperation with ex-Riverdancer Anne-Marie Cunningham TCRG, who kept coming to teach on workshops. We invited her to teach at the 3rd summer school together with well known couple, Mary Sweeney TCRG and Sean Kilkenny TCRG. Beside them, there also were teaching Tereza Bachová, Tereza Bernardová and Václav Bernard. This summer school brought up the special ending of whole event, which was final performance in Ponec theatre. There were 107 dancers in total at the 3rd summer school, which 73 were from the Czech Republic, 23 from Poland, 11 from Slovakia. Constantly increasing amount of participants reflects on popularity and good reputation of this event.

          

Another following summer school, fourth in total order, was held in date the 14th – 21st of August in Rakovského grammar school in Prague. Teachers were Anne-Marie Cunningham TCRG, who called to herself Kelley O’Boyle TCRG from London. Beside Tereza Bernardová, there were also teaching Marie Dernovšková and Kristina Roztočilová. Participation grew up again – 126 people (70 from the Czech Republic, 33 from Poland, 17 from Slovakia, 6 from Germany). Evening programme was enriched to projection of interesting records. For the first time, we put one afternoon in the middle of the week for the rest. There was swimming pool in the sport centre Pražačka, specially booked for the participants. And again successful final evening in Ponec theatre.

The 5th summer school of Irish dancing had the venue in Jitřní grammar school in Prague 4, in date the 13th-19th of August 2005. For the first time, music school became a part of dancing school. But in the right order: There were 149 participants in total (96 from the Czech Republic, 46 from Poland, 6 from Slovakia, 1 from Sweden). From that amount, 11 people sign up themselves to the music part of the summer school. Teacher’s board from previous year was completed with several dancing show dancer, Shane McAvinchey, beside him there were Anne-Marie Cunningham TCRG, Kelley O’Boyle TCRG, Tereza Bernardová, Marie Dernovšková, Krisitna Roztočilová. Music lessons were led by Roman Kozák (Bodhran), Marek Zienert (guitar), Martin Penič (flutes) and Pavel Švestka with Dan Malczyk (fiddle). Musicians also performed at the final evening. We launched massages as a novelty of that summer school. Zuzana Ferebauerová took care of the participants. This part of summer school became very popular and unique, after earlier timidity.

         

The 6th summer school was held in date the 19th-25th of August 2006 in Zárubova and Mráčkova grammar schools. 145 people (106 from the Czech Republic, 29 from Poland, 8 from Slovakia, 1 from Sweden and Germany) participated at dancing part and 20 people (16 from the Czech Republic, 3 from Poland and 1 from Slovakia) participated at music part. Dance teachers were Lisa Delaney-Galal ADCRG, Corrine Delaney, Stephen Scariff TCRG, Tereza Bernardová, Marie Dernovšková, Kristina Roztočilová. Music lessons were led by same teachers as in previous year. The novelty of that summer school were set dancing lessons led by Joe and Janet O’Hara. Another novelty was morning yoga warm-up led by Helena Kubrychtová.

The 7th summer school of Irish dancing had the same venue as previous year at Zárubova and Mráčkova grammar schools in date the 18th-24th of August 2007. We registered 254 applications from 199 people. The novelty of that school was Irish class taught by Radvan Markus, and 13 people took part at those lessons. Dance teachers met up in the same formation as in previous year (Lisa Delaney-Galal ADCRG, Corinne Delaney, Stephen Scarrif,TCRG, Tereza Bernardová, Marie Dernovšková, Kristina Roztočilová, Joe a Janet O´Harovi), bodhran lessons were led by Roman Kozák, guitar by René Starhon, flute lessons were taught by Michel Sikiotakis from France and play on fiddle by Micheala Rábová. 17 dancers participated in set dancing, 32 in music lessons, 20 people were placed in complete beginners. I remark, that summer school included all the novelties from past years (swimming pool, projection, final evening performance in Ponec theatre and so on).

          

In chronological order the 8th summer school of Irish dancing had already the traditional venue in Prague 4. Zárubova grammar school was set up as a main base, but some tution was held at Písnická grammer school,too. Whole event started on Saturday the 16th of August and finished by the final evening in Ponec theatre on Friday the 22nd of August 2008. We broke last year record and number of this year participants climbed up to 211 people. Representants of various countries such as: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, UK and Ireland met at this occasion. Successful novelty, which appeared in this year programme was Sean nós dancing. Along with that, there were held other classes such as Set dancing, Step dancing-in all levels, music instruments (flute/whistle, bodhran, fiddle, guitar) and Irish language. Teachers for this year were: Lisa Delaney-Galal ADCRG, Ronan McCormack ADCRG, Tereza Bernardová, Kristina Roztočilová, Ronan Regan, Joe a Janet O'Hara; Michel Sikiotakis,Roman Kozák, René Starhon and Radvan Markus. 205 people in total participated in dance classes, 25 people in music classes and 10 people in Irish language class. There were massage services available for participants again this year, same as people had a chance to join the improvised sessions in near restaurant or at school during the week.

9th Summer School of Irish Dancing which took place in Prague from 15th to 21st August 2009 also had a second name, Bernard‘s Summer School 2009. As of this year, our family became the organiser of it. Despite the fact that the Summer School provides new serious applicants into the Irish dancing and competition “space“, specifically this area provides very little support to it. There was a decreased number of participants of the step dancing lessons led by Ronan McCormack and thus also a decreased number of participants compared to last year. Altogether, the Summer School had 167 participants from 6 countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Ireland) who attended five dance workshops, seven music classes and Irish lessons. There were 41 musicians and 9 students of Irish. Dance lessons were filled by 156 participants. Step dancing lessons were led by Ronan McCormack (intermediate + open), Tereza Loužecká Bachová and Tereza Bernardová (Beginners +Primary), Marie Dernovšková (complete beginners), sean-nós and set dancing were led by Gerard Butler. Bodhrán lessons were traditionally provided by Roman Kozák, fiddle lessons were made enjoyable by Alastair Edwards, whistle players divided between Michel Sikiotakis and Martin Penič, guitar was the domain of René Starhon. Three new music classes were opened: banjo with Marek Zienert, button accordion taught by Marek Poledna and uillean pipes led by Michel Sikiotakis. Irish films were shown during the evenings, apart from informal sessions there was an Irish ceilí night organised at KC Novodvorská and the final evening show again took place at Ponec Theatre.
 

Bernard's Summer School 2010 took place in Prague from the 14th - 20th of August. It was the 10th anniversary celebration. For the second time there was the Irish ceilí night in KC Novodvorská, sessions were running at the school as well as in the pubs. The Final evening show moved to a bigger venue - KC Vltavská. Along with BSS 2010 participants and teachers there were special guests peforming that night - James Devine - the fastest tap dancer in the World and duo

Emma O'Sullivan and John O'Halloran - the finalists of RTE's All Ireland Talent show 2010. For the first time sean nós singing classes had been introduced and Maire Bríd Ní Maoilchiaráin from Ireland taught that class. Radvan Marcus was once again teaching Irish language. Unfortunately fiddle class had to be cancelled this year as the number of applicants didn't meet the requirements. On the other hand bodhrán class led by Roman Kozák and whistle and flute class, which was split into different levels between Michel Sikiotakis and Martin Penič proved to be very popular. Michel Sikiotakis was teaching an uilleann pipes class too. Guitarists were led by David Mikulášek and Marek Zienert took care of banjo class. Irish step dancing classes were taught from the complete beginners to advanced level by Markéta Bernardová, Tereza Bernardová, Tereza Loužecká Bachová and Ronan McCormack. Sean nós dancing and set dancing were taught by Gerard Butler. From a statistical point of view there were 143 participants in total, who entered into 208 activities. 113 participants came from the Czech Republic, 20 from Germany, 2 from Italy, 2 from Ireland, 1 from the UK, 3 from Poland, 2 from Slovakia. Step dancing classes were attended by 80 dancers, at the set dancing class there were 26 participants and 41 people entered in the sean nós dancing class. Music classes were attended by 45 musicians in total (whistle - 19 people, bodhrán - 18 people, guitar - 6 people, uilleann pipes and banjo had 1 person each). Irish language class and sean nós singing were attended equally by 8 people each. 44 water barrels were drunk (1 barrel is approximately 19 litres of water). There was certainly less of water used in total thanks to 1 week hot water lockout in the area.
 

 Bernard's Summer School 2011 was held at the usual place (Zárubova grammar school, Prague 4) from 13 to 19 August 2011. A total of 12 classes were opened – step dancing for beginners / primary led by Tereza Bernardová and Teresa Loužecká Bachová, attended by a total of 70 dancers, step dancing for intermediate / open dancers under the leadership of Ronan McCormack - 16 dancers, Irish set dancing led by Gerard Butler - 22 dancers and sean nós dancing led by Gerard Butler - 42 dancers.
The music lessons included whistles under the leadership of Michel Sikiotakis, Jan Banis and Anka Šůrová - 15 musicians, flute with Radvan Markus - 2 musicians, bodhrán was taught as usual by Roman Kozák - 7 persons, fiddle was taught in two classes by Míša Rábová - 11 musicians, guitar - David Mikulášek – 7 players, the Irish bagpipes - Michel Sikiotakis - 3 musicians. Sean nós singing took place under the direction of Máire Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin and was attended by six singers and Radvan Markus also taught Irish to 6 persons. The summer school was attended by 118 Czech persons, 12from Poland, 19 from Germany, 2 people from Slovakia, 3 people from Estonia and one person each from Japan and Brazil. Only ca. 40 barrels of water were drunk this time.
The Final Evening returned to Ponec Theatre. The guests of this evening were world step dancing champions, Claire Greaney and Cathal Keaney. The evening was also attended by the First Secretary of the Irish Embassy in Prague, Mr. Brian McElduff. The event was twice mentioned by MF Dnes newspaper.