Shane McAvinchey, TCRG

-         Chief co-ordinator of Tir na nOg Munich

-          Co director of TNN Germany/dancer/teacher/choreographer

  

Shane McAvinchey hails from Nenagh in Co. Tipperary Ireland. He started dancing at the age of six and has been dancing his way around the world since.

Shane first began dancing with the Marie Hogan School of Dance. He began almost by accident. While collecting his sister at her dancing class, the teacher coaxed him to his feet and taught him his first steps. Needless to say he went back the following week and the week after that.......and was hooked!

 

At the age of ten Shane moved to the Anne Callanan School of Dancing. While there he showed great interest in dancing competitively and competed in Munster, all-Ireland, Scottish, English and World Championships. By the age of twelve he had qualified for his first World Championship and by the age of sixteen:

 

·   Won two Munster titles

 

·   Had placed sixth in the All Irelands

 

·   Placed third in the English nationals.

 

·   Placed fourth in the World Championships twice.

 

·   Was part of the Callanan school eight hand team which won the All-Ireland and placed fourth in the World Championships.

 

 

 

PERFORMING AROUND THE WORLD

 

Shane found his passion for the performance side of Irish dance through years of experience all over the world.

In 1995, when Shane was twelve years old, he was delighted to be invited to take part in a small two week tour of the U.K. with the local Nenagh Comhaltas group.

In 1998 he was selected to go on a two month tour of Australia and Malaysia with the Kerry based group 'Ceol Chiarrai' in a show called 'Spirit of Ireland'. While touring Australia he held workshops with a number of Australian Irish dancing schools.

 

RIVERDANCE

 

Shane got his biggest break in the year 2000 when he was 16. He was hand-picked to join touring Irish dance and music show 'Riverdance'.

While in Riverdance he toured the USA, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and Japan and also appeared on various T.V shows around the world including:

 

·  "Die Stunde der Stars" which was filmed in Berlin Germany

 

· An advertisement in Chicago USA for the department store "Marshall Fields"

 

· The Jose Carreras Gala Show in 2003 which was broadcast live across parts of Europe to over six million viewers.

 

· “Tiger-Enten Club” A children’s television show in Germany

 

After three and a half years of touring with this show Shane decided it was to start on a new adventure and said goodbye to touring with Riverdance. He still makes occasional appearances with the "Riverdance Flying Squad". The Flying Squad does corporate and promotional gigs around the world, one of Shane’s most memorable experiences with the Flying Squad was when he went on a three week promotional tour of Japan and Malaysia in 2003. He has also recently performed in front of the Ancient pyramids of Cairo, Hong Kong, Beijing and on various TV shows around Europe with the flying squad.

 

In 2009, Shane was asked to join the Irish president on a state trip to Luxembourg where he performed with highly accomplished musicians for Luxembourg royalty, Irish dignitaries and the Irish president. Shane was honored to have been chosen to represent Irish culture on this trip and it is one of his most memorable performances to date.

 

 

 

TIR NA NOG

 

In June 2003 Shane heard of a school in Munich (Rince Tir Na nOg) that needed a teacher. After visiting Munich, seeing the dance school and meeting Mary Sweeney (The founder of the school), Shane moved to Munich and has been living and teaching there with great success since September 2003.

 

Since Shane joined Mary & Geraldine in 2003, dancers from Tir Na nOg Munich have competed in Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, England & Ireland. His pupils dancers have competed in solo competitions at the World championships on several occasions. Dancers from the school have been doing very well in Open championships in England & Ireland receiving recalls and medals in lots of top competitions. In 2005, One dancer, Elsa Buckley, was one of 50 dancers recalled out of 200 world qualifiers and became the first mainland European dancer to receive a world medal for coming in 46^th place at the championships. Since then the pupils of Tir na nOg have been awarded medals at many major championships including All Scotland, Great Britain, All Ireland and World Championships.

 

 

 

In December 2005, Shane produced a full length show `Celtic Myth´ in Munich with the help of Mary and Geraldine. It was performed to over 300 people and received a fantastic response. Shane had many tasks in making this happen and was in charge of Choreography, Writing, Directing, Lighting and Sound, Narration, Stage Management and Costumes. Shane is constantly working on new choreographies for various productions and recently was part of the team at Stagefire Project in Poland where they staged a full length show in 10 days which sold out two concerts in Cracow and also went to perform at the huge Woodstock festival in Poland.

 

When Shane is not teaching classes in Munich he keeps himself busy by conducting workshops around Europe. To date, Shane has held workshops across Germany, Austria, Spain, Israel and Russia. He has also not yet hung up his performing shoes and performs in many events and festivals around Europe.

 

Shane is committed to teaching his pupils to the best of their potential and is honoured to be apart of the Tir Na nOg teaching team. He believes in having a fun and social experience while learning the art of traditional Irish dance.

 

Shane successfully passed his TCRG examination in 2007 making him a fully qualified teacher with CLRG.

 

Fly high!