Eiralys Unzicker Dances to Dublin

Every year, the Cumann Rince Náisiúnta, or Irish National Dance Association, brings more than 2,500 young men and women to Dublin, Ireland, to compete in the World Open Irish Dancing Championships. But don’t let a huge assembly of 2,500 dancers in Dublin fool you. Only one or two percent of Irish dancers worldwide qualify to go to this elite event. And last summer, among the tiny fraction of Irish dancers worldwide competing at the World Open Irish Dancing Championships, you would have found Judah’s very own Eiralys Unzicker!

One of the key features of Irish dance lies in how the dancers jump. Irish dancers cannot use their arms in any way; they must keep their arms locked to their sides at all times. Eiralys told us, “Every time you jump up, you have to jump high, and you can’t use your arms to get momentum. It’s a whole lot more lower body focused for muscles.”

So how did Eiralys start dancing in this way? She told us that from a young age, she was a wild child. That prompted her mom, Judah teacher Mrs. Melanie Unzicker, to enroll her in a dance class, specifically Irish dance as a nod to her Irish heritage. Eiralys said, “The way I started was my mom’s idea, because I was kind of a crazy kid. She just wanted me to get my energy out, and of all the dance forms offered at the Champaign Park District, my mom thought, ‘Well, you’re Irish, so why not try it?’” Eiralys felt no resonance with it at first, but as time went on, she formed too deep of a connection with Irish dance to try anything else. She said, “Once I got into it, I didn’t want to try any other type of dance.”

Eiralys also developed a love for competition. When she was a fledgling and only wanted to dance for fun, she got an opportunity from her dance teacher. Eiralys said, “I had been dancing a lot with my teacher from Mahomet, but she was very competition-based. I wasn’t sure at first, because I just wanted to dance for fun. But they were offering a competition downtown, and because my teacher was hosting it, she said, ‘You don’t have to travel anywhere, so why not just try it out?’ To my surprise, I got second in my first-ever competition, and I was very happy about that.”

With a silver medal on her soon-to-be-filled mantle, Eiralys started taking dance more seriously, taking extra classes to prepare for competitions throughout the year. Eiralys said, “The world champions usually quit school and spend their whole time practicing. Dance is their life.” Eiralys took a similar approach, being homeschooled by her mother her entire life before this year to free up time for extra conditioning at the gym and morning dance classes. Mrs. Unzicker told us, “She was homeschooled so she could focus on her athletic time with dance. Because I’m a teacher, and her siblings were homeschooled as well, it provided the opportunity for her to focus more on her dancing and athletic development.”

Dance competitions are easy to pick up, but they become more intricate the further you progress. There are two variants: teams and solos, both taking place in a ballroom. In team competitions, multiple dancers from the same school dance together on stage, and the teams are judged together. For solos, the dances are the same, but dancers can add their own moves to spice them up and stand out — if you are at a certain level. The competitions last a very, very long time. Not five or six hours long. Try two days long, with each day going from 7 am to 10 pm. The audience must be absolutely silent during each dance.

With her extravagant skills battle-tested in competitions around the United States, Eiralys finally resolved in 2025 to test herself at the World Open Irish Dancing Championships. She had qualified for Worlds before. In fact, she had the chance to go at the young age of 13. But Eiralys wanted to hone her skills to prepare for future dancing duels. Mrs. Unzicker said, “She didn’t want to go to Worlds until she had reached a certain level. She qualified for Worlds at a younger age, but she realized that she needed to be a stronger athlete to go. That’s when I realized, ‘Wow, she’s really determined and focused on Irish dance.’”

When Eiralys set out for Dublin in June 2025, she dressed for the occasion. Her custom-made, crystal-laden dress cost $3,400! Mrs. Unzicker, like most people, does not have an “Irish dance dress fund,” so Eiralys worked hard over a summer pollinating and shucking corn. By working hard, Eiralys made all the money she needed to buy the dress and had the reward of designing the dress herself.

At the competition, Eiralys Unzicker ranked as the 31st best Irish dancer in the world for her age. Worlds, she said, was a mental battle. She had to battle with thoughts about her training, comparing herself to other people, and self-critical thinking. She said, “When I look back at it, I’m really glad I kept training, because when I did get there, it was hard, even for me, who’s been in Irish dance forever. Everybody looked so similar, but it was tiny differences that changed the judges’ opinion. I’m really glad that I did my training, because if I hadn’t, I would have stuck out like a sore Irish thumb.”

Eiralys plans to go back to Worlds in summer of 2027. As she continues to dance at the highest level of Irish dance, she aspires to use her talent to bring glory to God. She said, “The reason why I’m doing this is to show people the talent I was given by God and that the competition doesn’t really matter in the end. They are just for fun, you know.” Eiralys Unzicker, Judah’s Irish dance superstar, is slip jigging, reeling, treble jigging, and hornpiping to both compete and have a little fun.

—Michael Oshimokun, class of ’26