After an ‘almost unheard of' Irish dance score, WA teen competes on world stage
Kaden Scheller, 17, says when he tells people he does Irish dancing, people always ask him if he 'can do a little jig.'
Sometimes they'll even try to demonstrate what they think Irish dancing is in front of him, Scheller said.
'They just look like they're flailing their feet around in place with their arms down,' he said. 'Which I laugh at, but I'm also cringing at because it's a lot more complicated than that.'
The Gig Harbor teen is competing at the 2025 World Irish Dance Championships in Dublin this week, April 13-20, after finishing with close to a perfect score in the qualifying regional competition in Phoenix last November. The Irish Times have described the Championships as the 'Olympics of Irish dance' and said it drew 5,000 competitors in 2017.
At a practice Jan. 21, Scheller demonstrated one of his routines: a dizzying, ground-pounding series of jumps, spins and kicks across the studio to a rhythmic tune.
'I'm very proud of him,' Scheller's teacher at Olympia's Haley Prendergast School of Irish Dance, Patti Martig, told The News Tribune. ' ... Irish dance is not an easy form of dance to learn and master.'
The art form requires grace and musicality, as well as strength and conditioning, she continued. 'For someone to master it at a level like Kaden has, it takes real dedication and hard work.'
Irish dance today is rooted in the traditional dance form of the Irish people, and has developed over centuries, according to the Irish Dance Teachers' Association of North America. It can take different forms, but solo dancing often involves holding the arms still at the sides of the body and performing fast, intricate movements with the lower half of the body.
Other types of Irish dance include team and ceili dances, which involve dancers making formations with each other, and show dancing — displayed in famed productions like Riverdance.
The World Championships includes three rounds, and contestants compete in gender- and age-specific categories. Scheller said the first round, the 'hard shoe' round, requires him to dance his routine simultaneously with two other people on the same stage without colliding with them. The second round is shorter and 'a lot more exciting,' where two dancers are 'just flying around the stage doing jumps and spins,' he said. The third round is the recall for finalists and is danced solo.
Scheller, a senior at Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma, started his journey with the Haley Prendergast School over 10 years ago. When he was around second grade, Scheller's twin sister started learning Irish dance, and his older sister soon followed, he said. His mom decided to enroll him too because they were already at the maximum family rate for tuition (the school has since stopped that policy, according to Martig).
'So it was like I danced for free, and then I just started to progress really fast,' Scheller said. 'And I got good and I started to really like it.'
His sisters eventually stopped to pursue other interests, but Scheller kept going — especially after he won everything he was entered into on his first competition.
Patti Martig, his teacher, said she knew from 'day one' that Scheller had talent.
'When the dance and their movements blend and synchronize with the music, there is just this beauty that happens,' she said. 'It's almost hard to explain, but you know it when you experience it. And he does that very, very well.'
Over the last three years, she's noticed a surge of dedication to the dance form as he began competing, she said. He also helps teach younger students at the school.
This isn't the first time Scheller has qualified for the World Championships, but he and Martig said they consider this one special because of how well he finished at the qualifying Western U.S. Regional Oireachtas, where dancers from the 13 Western U.S. states, including Alaska and Hawaii, competed in November. Out of 15 judges at the Oireachtas, 12 ranked Scheller first in the competition, which is 'almost unheard of,' according to Martig.
Scheller first qualified for the World Championships in 2019, but wasn't able to attend until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned in 2023 and 2024. This year is his fourth Worlds, and he's looking to score a personal best, he said.
Asked if he's interested in pursuing Irish dance professionally, Scheller said he isn't sure yet. He finished applying to colleges earlier this year and said he's still trying to figure out what he's interested in. He could see himself going on tour with a show team someday, he said.
The CLRG World Championships 2025 will be broadcast through Feistv, available for a fee. Scheller will be performing at 8 a.m. Irish Time on Friday, April 18, in the boys 17-18 age category, according to Martig.
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