Cé hí Marie Gavláková?

Off duty - Marie Gavláková relaxes with a Guinness outside The Three Fiddles

Marie, can you tell us something about yourself?

I'm a twenty-three-year-old medical student from Prague, currently in my fifth year at the Second Faculty of Medicine, and in less than two years I hope to become a qualified doctor. But at the same time, a big part of me is an Irish dancer and manager of the Irish dance group Rinceoirí, which is by the way the oldest Irish Dance group in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1997, so It's actually older than me!

How did you get into Irish dancing?

Well, I was seven years old at the time, just starting primary school, and on the way to school, I used to hop and skip. My mom noticed this and thought, wait a minute, that reminds me of something. She had seen Irish dance shows in the past, like the Lord of the Dance, so she decided to enrol me in a dance school. And here I am, 16 years later and still dancing.

How big is Rinceoirí?

Our performing group, Rinceoirí, which participates in various events ranging from festivals to theatre performances, has around fifteen members. As for teaching Irish dancing and competing, we are also part of the British dance school McGahan Lees Academy and operate a Czech branch with approximately fifty dancers. In addition to Britain, our school has branches in Poland, Ukraine and Hong Kong, and together we also have shared training sessions in preparation for competitions.

Will you participate in the competitions at the end of this year in Prague?

Yes, at the beginning of December, the Mainland European Irish dancing championship and World Qualifiers will be held in Prague, and my fellow dancers from McGahan Lees Czechia and I will be competing with our solo dances as well as in the group category. We will be defending our European championship title in the Senior Ladies 8hand Ceili category for the fourth time. Last year we won the European qualifiers in Romania and then went on to participate in the World championships in Dublin, which was such an amazing experience. Even though we did not make it to the final round, it was great to dance with the best dancers from around the world. So many talented and passionate people there!

Are you ever nervous when you're dancing?

I'm usually a little nervous right before a performance or competition, but then when I step onto the stage, it just gives me the confidence because I’m doing something that fulfils me. It's such a nice feeling to show everyone what I’ve been training for so long, it makes me do my best, I just love it.

How often do you train? 

It depends on upcoming competitions or performances. Overall, for my solo competition dances I have two or three two-hour training sessions per week, then for my performances with Rinceoirí I have one two-hour training session and for the group competition, we have one training session per week that is also one to two hours long. It’s quite a lot of hours when I think about it, but I’m used to it.

Do you feel sometimes that it's all physically too much?

Well, I definitely feel my muscles and toes after some training sessions, especially when we focus on running on our toes in hard shoes. But I got used to it pretty quickly. You can't just go from nothing to five training sessions a week. But if you're gradually building up the intensity over the years then it gets easier to keep it up and you're not that tired after every session anymore. You just go back to it the next day and you're okay.

And how do you balance this with studying medicine?

It's about time management, actually. I need to plan my days so that I can go to the hospital in the morning, then I have a study session at home in the afternoon and in the evening, I go to the training session and just focus on dancing. It really helps me because I can take the pressure off, clear my head from the amount of new information I need to remember, and dance my heart out.

When you have exams, do you have to cut back on the dance? 

Not anymore, I have become pretty efficient at learning. The most important thing is not to just read books blindly, but to find a way to connect the information with something that is already in your head. This way I can learn really quickly and it’s also helpful when I’m coming up with a diagnosis. So now, I don't have to cut down on training. But it took time for me to learn how to do this, first year of medicine was definitely stressful.

Do your colleagues in your class come to watch your performances?

Yes, I have a few friends from my class who sometimes come to see me perform or even try to dance with me at the public lessons. Some find it hard to understand how I manage to study medicine and dance at a competitive level at the same time, but my best friends know me well and support me through it. If time allows, I would like to continue dancing even after I become a doctor.

Okay, tell me more about what's coming up for now. 

Apart from McGahan Lees Czechia preparing for European championship, our performing group Rinceoirí also has some big events coming up. We are preparing an evening program full of Irish dancing and music together with Irish music band Shannon. It will be a program suitable as a cultural event for Irish pubs, festivals, but also business and private events, and we also plan to bring it to the theatres in 2026, so there is definitely something to look forward to. In the meantime, we are still performing and can be booked for a wide variety of events, from birthday parties and balls to Christmas parties.

Is Irish Dance developing somehow in the way it is performed?

I would say that the traditional basis of Irish dance and Ceili remains the same, but what changes and evolves the most over the years is competitive Irish dance. It's more athletic now, there is more jumping, toe running and powerful moves in general. Although the music and tempo remain the same, each dance school has its own steps and changes them from year to year.

How do you market yourselves? 

Rinceoirí promotes itself mainly trough our social networks, Facebook and Instagram, where we share photos and videos from planned events, their preparation, and behind-the-scenes glimpses. We also recently became affiliate members of CIBCA, so many of our events will be shared through their social networks as well. Our website provides information about the group and my contact details as the group’s manager, so anyone can contact me and arrange a performance for their event.

Maruška, thanks very much!

You can follow Rinceorí on Facebook and instagram.