Jessica’s dream comes true as she scoops world title!

After 21 years of Irish dancing and 13 appearances in the finals of the World Irish Dancing Championships, there were scenes of unbridled joy in Killarney on Saturday night last when determined young Athlone dancer, Jessica Rogers, was crowned Senior Ladies World Champion at the 2021 World Irish Dancing Championships

The 25-year old chartered accountant from Woodville, in Cornamaddy, described the win as “a dream come true” this week, having been on the podium (top 5 finish) at the World Dance Championships a record 13 times and in the runner-up slot on four occasions!

The only daughter of Susan and Wilf Rogers, who also have a son, Eric, Jessica started Irish dancing with the Concannon Ganley Academy at the tender age of just four years, and has been besotted with dancing ever since. “I absolutely loved everything about it, from the costumes to the wigs to the competitions, and I still love it today,” she admits.

The long hours of hard work and commitment to honing her dancing skills didn’t faze her in the slightest, and she says she could not have perfected her craft without her amazing dance teachers, Christina Concannon and Dairine Ganley, who have been teaching her since she was four years old and whom she describes as being “the best in the world.”

She is also deeply indebted to her aunt, Anita Sheerin, from Motionfit Global, who helped her with her strength and fitness training in preparation for the World Finals.

Along with the commitment of her Aunt and her dancing teachers, Jessica Rogers says her parents and family were also “completely supportive” of her passion for dance and had to make a lot of sacrifices over the years.

“When I was younger I had to get a new Irish dancing costume made almost every year as I was still growing,” she points out.

The young Athlone woman’s achievement in being crowned World Irish Dance Champion is made all the more remarkable by the fact that she gave up Irish dancing in 2017 to concentrate on becoming a fully-qualified chartered accountant.

“I competed in my last Worlds in 2017 and then I moved to Dublin to work with PWC and to complete my exams to become a chartered accountant, so I didn’t have time to dance,” she says.

Nevertheless, she says she missed the dancing so much that she decided to resume classes in 2019 with a view to giving the Worlds “one more go” in 2020.

“Then lockdown happened and I found myself practising my steps in the kitchen and doing zoom classes online with my dance teachers two or three nights a week, and that was a whole new experience for both me and my teachers, but it was worth it in the end,” she laughs.

All the hard work and years of persistence and training paid off for Jessica when she travelled to the INEC in Killarney over last weekend and wowed all nine judges in the finals of the World Irish Dancing Championships with her perfect combination of steps in the reel, jig and set dance routine, beating off stiff competition from 45 other competitors.

“I knew I had put the work in, so I was confident going into the finals, but you never know what the judges are looking for until the final votes come in, so I was over the moon when I found out I had won.”

Jessica said she had “a small family celebration, including a bottle of champagne” in the INEC after the Finals along with her mother, Susan (who did Irish dancing until she was 16 years old) and her grandparents, Kevin and Mary Sheerin, from the Dublin Road in Athlone.

Jessica has plenty of musical blood coursing through her veins, courtesy of her mother’s family, who are closely related to the multi-talented Sheerin Family Band from Tang, outside Ballymahon.

Jessica’s grandfather, Kevin, who played with a host of Irish showbands for over 40 years, including Daniel O’Donnell, is an uncle of the Sheerin family.

Since she first started dancing at four years of age, Jessica Rogers always harboured a dream of winning the World Championships.

The fact that it took her 21 years and 13 Championships to finally achieve her lifelong dream is “an inspiration to other dancers, and to anyone who has a dream to keep working hard, listen to your teachers and don’t give up” according to her mother, Susan.

“One day your dream might come true” she adds” just like it did for Jessica.”