Revesby’s Phoenix Cooper brings home national Irish dancing crown
PHOENIX Cooper took to Irish dancing seriously only three years ago but he is so good that he won the 2018 national title in Cairns.
The Express
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PHOENIX Cooper took to Irish dancing seriously only three years ago but he is so good that he won the national title in Cairns.
The 11-year-old from Revesby picked up the rudiments of Irish dancing from a class teacher before teaching himself from the YouTube.
Phoenix stepped up to win the Australian Irish Dancing Championships recently.
Phoenix, who attends St Christopher's Primary in Panania, is a regular competitor at state level and trains at the Fiona- Gaye Moore Academy of Irish Dance three or four times a week.
“Phoenix got into Irish dancing because one of his classroom teachers was an Irish dancer who taught the class some of the moves,” his mum Samantha said.
“Phoenix always wanted to impress her, so he would come home and learn new moves from YouTube.
“He was quite good and very very interested in it.
“During the summer holidays, just before he started Year 3, Phoenix would whinge and whine to me because he wanted to do proper Irish dancing lessons.
“Having no clue, we struggled to find him a school. I was still looking at enrolling him in basketball and other activities.
“By coincidence, my husband was in a meeting at work with one of Australia’s world champions, Fiona Gaye-Moore.
“She said she had her own school and the rest is history.
“We were very lucky because it turned out that Fiona, her daughter Ceili, and her son, Jonty, have all won the World Championships at some point which is unheard of.
“This amazing trio all teach Phoenix. They work so hard. He is very lucky.”