ITW Singers Spread Christmas Cheer at Summerhill Community Tree Lighting 🎄

On Wednesday, 26th November, the ITW Singers were invited by Dublin City Council to perform at the annual community tree-lighting ceremony in Summerhill, North Dublin. Presided over by Dublin City Council representatives and the Lord Mayor, the event brought together local residents for an evening of festive celebration and community spirit. 🎶

Led by Music Director Andrew Dawson, our singers—made up of soloists, group performers, and our vibrant Vocal Vibes Showchoir—filled the square with Christmas classic after Christmas classic, including a solo by our fabulous Clare Griffin which rocked the crowd. Their joyful harmonies added sparkle to the occasion and created a magical atmosphere for families and neighbours who gathered to welcome the start of the festive season. 🎄

The crowd was also delighted by special visitors Mr. and Mrs. Claus, with a surprise appearance from The Grinch, who caused just the right amount of Christmas mischief. (Rumour has it he was “apprehended” later that evening on two counts of festive troublemaking—though Gardaí have yet to comment!)

It was a truly wonderful evening, warmly received by the Summerhill community. We are incredibly proud of our singers, who brought positivity, connection, and holiday spirit to the event. As a small thank-you, performers were treated to selection boxes by Dublin City Council and festive gift cards from ITW. ✨

Christmas came early in Summerhill—and ITW was delighted to bring the magic. 🎉

🎭 UPCOMING! Shakespeare Company 2025/26 Trip to The Globe - Twelfth Night

✨‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ ✨

Following an amazing year of ITW, planning for our much anticipated Shakespeare Company Trip and Festival is already underway!

Our ITW Shakespeare Company (4th class - 3rd year) have performed many productions over the 12+ years since its conception including ‘The Winters Tale’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and so much more. The company’s ethos is centred around developing musicality, movement and imagination skills, teamwork and fostering a love and demystification of Shakespeare’s language from a young age all the way up to their Junior Cert! Getting ahead of their Junior Cert text and nurturing a love and practical experience with his works!

Our company will meet weekly working on their chosen play and put on and perform in their own Shakespeare Festival in mid November! 🎭

Along with this, is our much anticipated trip to The Globe! This marks one of ITW’s all year highlights. Students in our Shakespeare Company fly out to The Big Smoke and revel in a Shakespeare production performed in Shakespeares own, The Globe Theatre. Along with this, they take part in an acting and Shakespeare inspired workshop and tour! ✈️

This year, the ITW Shakespeare Company will take to London to see ‘Twelfth Night’ on The Globe stage on October 21st!

If you would like to get involved with our Shakespeare Company, do get in touch! All are students from 4th class to 3rd year are welcome!

Read more about our Shakespeare Company here! 📍

ITW Shakespeare Company for 4th Class - 3rd Year Students

The Shakespeare Company posing along by The Thames

Our Company in performance!

Senior Dance Company - a Magical year

My name is Aideen and I am a 16 year old Graham Dance Company and Elite team member in ITW. Throughout the year we have been working on so many pieces in class  for the upcoming competitions we had. In class we learned the choreography but our teachers give us the opportunity to add in bits of our own personalities and style to our dancing which I really enjoy.

At the start of the year we had dance platform which was a performance in the Helix Theatre as part of Dance Platform and then we had Perform Ireland in February which was also a non competitive opportunity to show people what we have been working on. I found it so helpful to perform our dances on stage with a crowd but with no stakes so we could learn from our mistakes to have everything perfect for competition. It’s also just so much fun to see other studios dances and meet up with friends from other studios.

After Christmas time we were straight focused on our trip to Disneyland Paris in March. We were taking part of the Take us to the Magic Competition in Paris and then we were dancing in the Disneyland parade. We had a good few dances competing in the competition we had two company pieces and three elite team pieces . We worked so hard for the months coming up to this, most of our rehearsals were at least two hours for the last few weeks to make sure our dances were perfect.

The competition in Paris was so much fun and it was so interesting to see other countries styles of dances as well. It was very different to the usual competitions we do in Ireland. We had so much fun and learned so much from the competition and we were so happy with how all of our pieces went. After we came home we kept working on our dances as we had another competition in April. Our next competition was the Aaron Dwyer Competition in t in Dublin. In this competition the elite team had two dances to compete and I had a solo and a duet with Farrah. All of our dances went really well, one of our group dances came 1st and one came 2nd and then my Solo came 3rd and our Duet also came 3rd. This was extremely successful and we were so happy with the outcome. It really showed how all of our hard work paid off. 

I love competing as when you stand on the stage you get such a thrill and nothing compares to the excitement and adrenaline rush of dancing on a big stage in front of an audience. I love seeing everyone’s dances and the takes different studios have on styles and songs. One of my favourite parts is seeing other studios costumes and getting the chance to do some of the workshops and learn from the judges of the competition. It is so rewarding to see our dances do well in comp and see how all of our hard work was all worth it in the end.

Dancing requires so much skill and dedication and dance competitions are such a great time to see a huge group and very talented people comps together to showcase what they have been putting their blood sweat and tears in.