For most people, wearing giant wigs and gluing tall poodle socks against your newly fake-tanned legs sounds like a circus. But for Sarah Dwinnell, a junior at Briar Woods High School, this is something she does almost every weekend for her main sport, Irish Dancing.

Dedicated and hardworking, Sarah has been dancing for seven years. "My sister had actually started dancing before I did and I thought it would be fun to start dancing too," Sarah said. "Eventually my sister had dropped out of dancing but I had fallen in love with it."

"When she started dancing, it was obvious she had natural talent," Brianna Dwinnell, Sarah’s sister, and a sophomore at Briar Woods, said.

Irish Dance is a dance that requires fast foot movements and jumps while the arms and upper body remain still.

Ever since her first time dancing, Sarah has been climbing to the top of the Irish Dancing podium. Recently, Sarah scored 5th place out of a total of 124 dancers at her Regional Championship which consists of dancers from states in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, and Florida. A score this high allowed her to qualify for the World Championships in Dublin, Ireland. In the past, she has placed 8th and 14th at the Regional Championships.

"I didn’t believe I actually did that well," exclaimed Sarah.

But being an Irish Dancer isn’t all competitions and trophies, Sarah’s schedule is packed. She needs to have time to practice and stay on schedule with her AP homework. "It’s a pretty tough schedule, but it’s definitely worth it," she said.

"When I’m older I want to travel the world and dance on Riverdance," she said.

Riverdance is a professional Irish Dance Show that consists of world class Irish Dancers. The show tours countries such as China, Ireland, America, Scotland, Poland, Australia.

Although Sarah was disappointed when she initially learned that BWHS didn’t have an Irish Dance Club, she hopes to spread her favorite sport to her classmates. "It’s definitely a plan in my future to create an Irish Dance Club at Briar Woods," she said.