Jenna (Left) and Maria (Right) Maxwell

By Courtney Almeida

Dance Champs

Local sisters place at World Irish Dance Championships

Apr 28, 2019 | 7:00 AM

Jenna Maxwell and Maria Maxwell, two sisters from Grande Prairie have successfully competed and placed at the 2019 World Irish Dance Championships. The competition took place in North Carolina from April 14-21, where Maria finished 35^th and Jenna ranked 51^st.

“My whole family went with me, actually my parents have never missed one of my competitions in all 11 years so, I’m really lucky to have them,” says Jenna Maxwell.

At the international level, Maria competed amongst 140 other girls when she took home 35^th place. Jenna finished 51^st out of 200 female competitors. The two sisters were two of only four Canadians to make it to the final round of competition.

The Maxwell sisters qualified for the world stage earlier this year, after both competing in the North American Irish Dance Championship, which was held in Orlando, Florida.

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At the North American competition, Jenna placed second out of 170 competitors, while Maria took home fifth place.

Both sisters have competed five times each at Nationals.

Jenna (Left) and Maria (Right) Maxwell

The two have also performed locally at the Bear Creek Folk Festival with the Step Crew and at the Irish Ceili for the last three years.

The sisters train with a group of 40 local dancers that are part of the Grande Prairie Society of Irish Dance, which is an organization run by parents.

There are no certified local instructors available for lessons in Grande Prairie, so the Society raises funds throughout the year to fly in instructors from Edmonton.

Angela Hogan is the instructor for both Maria and Jenna. Hogan owns Knock O’ Hogan School of Irish Dance in Edmonton and flies into Grande Prairie twice a week to teach the Maxwell sisters.

Although the family is passionate about Irish dancing, they have no ties to the Irish culture and simply just enjoy the dance.

“My mom actually taught a girl that was in it and I was in ballet at the time but when my mom saw it, she wanted to switch us over, so I just fell in love with it since then,” said Jenna Maxwell.

Jenna has been Irish dancing for 11 years now, she began when she was just five years old. Sister, Maria, started learning a year after Jenna and has been dancing for 10 years now.

To learn more about Irish dancing in Grande Prairie visit the Grande Prairie Society of Irish Dance.