Two Irish dance champions, James Devine and David Geaney, have released a stunning video celebrating the 100 years of Ireland’s history since the Easter Rising which also acts as a statement of their pride in being Irish.
The pair, working under the name Velocity, posted the video, “The Rising,” on April 22 and it already has over 85,000 views.
They posted “100 years ago, 1,200 volunteers set about achieving Irish freedom. 100 years later, Ireland has played a leading role in movements towards equality, in political, social and sporting highlights!
“Here's just a taste of Ireland's Rising and why we are #ProudToBeIrish.
“…Velocity - The Rising coming soon!
“1916 - 2016! In the words of Donal Walsh... "Take time. A door will open" #LiveLife”
Velocity - The Rising!100 years ago, 1,200 volunteers set about achieving Irish freedom. 100 years later, Ireland has played a leading role in movements towards equality, in political, social and sporting highlights! Here's just a taste of Ireland's Rising and why we are #ProudToBeIrish 🇮 Like & Share with all the Irish around the world! Velocity - The Rising coming soon! 🇮 1916 - 2016! In the words of Donal Walsh... "Take time. A door will open" #LiveLife David Geaney & James Devine
Posted by Velocity on Friday, April 22, 2016
Between the two dancers they have eight world champion titles and Devine holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest feet in the world (an astonishing 33 taps per second). Devine, from Ardnacrusha, County Clare, is also a three-time world champion dancer. David Geaney, from Dingle, County Kerry, is a five-time world champion and has been dubbed the “present day Fred Astaire” by world famous Irish musician Sharon Shannon. You can see why!
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From the blurb they posted on their Facebook page it is clear there was a great deal of passion put into the video. Geaney told IrishCentral the pair felt spoiled for choice when they tried to decide what to include in the video. Their main aim, however, was to make people feel “Proud to be Irish.”
“When we were making our video, we wanted to focus on Ireland's achievements over the last hundred years and how our history shaped the Ireland we have today," said Geaney.
“We hope to inspire the current and future generations of Irish people at home and around the world to go on to achieve bigger and better things by reminding them of the achievements of their predecessors.”
In their blurb for "The Rising" video on Facebook the dancing duo quote Donal Walsh, a teen mental health advocate who lost his battle with cancer at 16 years of age. Geaney told IrishCentral why they felt such an affinity for the Donal Walsh #LiveLife foundation.
“Donal Walsh would have been my age,” Geaney said. “His message in the lead up to his passing really struck home to a lot of young people in Ireland.
“The Donal Walsh #Livelife foundation's message, "Take time, a door will open," says that no matter how bad things get that there is always help available and we should appreciate life as it is so precious, especially in the case of people like Donal.”
The two talented dancers formed Velocity in January 2015. Although Geaney is still a college student, studying in Limerick, they hope that their efforts could lead to a major joint production.
He said, “We have been working on some really exciting ideas.
“James has previously had a successful residency on Broadway with his production "TapEire" and over the last year we have been bouncing new and unique ideas off each other as we are like minded in many ways, even though our styles may differ. We hope to release some more online videos over the next few months and are working on the production of a show for corporate events.
He added, “The ultimate goal would obviously be to bring Velocity to the big stage as a full scale production.”
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