A YOUNG woman from Hamsterley has won accolades in Irish Dancing abroad
Jasmine Raine, 26, attended Wolsingham School and studied A Levels at St John’s Catholic school in Bishop Auckland before proceeding to university in Newcastle. It was there that she discovered her love of dancing – the Irish way.
Jasmine said, “I always liked the look of this kind of dancing and remember watching a performance at Newcastle Theatre Royal in 2013, which had elements of Irish Dancing in it. And, of course, I knew about Riverdance. When I saw that there was an Irish Dancing Society at university, I decided to give it a try.”
That was in 2017. She spent ‘three very happy years’ dancing at university, performing flash mobs in the street and taking part in the annual fundraising shows. She made some lifelong friends there too.
Jasmine moved back home in ‘lockdown’ in 2020 and then stopped dancing for four years due to working and not living near any Irish Dancing classes. But then in 2023, she moved to London to take up a new position with a charity that runs workshops for primary and secondary schoolchildren as well as organising and running after-school clubs and holiday programmes in the community at their learning centres. The following year, in January 2024, Jasmine made the decision to go back to dancing and joined the London Academy of Irish Dance, based in East London.
“The Academy provides classes for adults and children. It is quite rare to find Irish Dancing for adults as the competitions are more focussed on young people,” she said. “I built up my skill and confidence and decided to enter competitions.”
Jasmine, whose parents Simon and Julie live in Hamsterley, now regularly competes, representing the school, and she also performs after moving up from Beginner to Primary. And last month, she competed in Florence, Italy, coming home with an armful of awards, including winning the ‘Beginner Premiership’. She loves to dance and enjoys competing as much for the joy of dancing, with trophies being secondary.
Well done, Jasmine. Keep on dancing – see you in the next Hamsterley Players Review?
