The North American Irish Dancing Championships 2010 are to kick off at the Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Florida this Saturday.

The event is hosted by the Mid Atlantic Region of the The Irish Dancing Teacher's Association of North America Inc (IDTANA) and is to be the largest such competition in the organization’s history, with 4,000 dancers attending and an estimated 12,000-14,000 spectators.

This year’s competition is being run by Chairpersons Lisa and Karen Petri and MaryKay Heneghan.

Lisa took time out from her frantic preparations to speak to IrishCentral.com about this year’s event.

“This is the largest North American Nationals that we have ever had, and it’s very exciting because we have dancers coming from literally all over the world to compete at this year’s competition. There’ll be dancers from Ireland, Scotland, England, Mexico, Brazil, as well, of course, as the United States and Canada,” said the organiser.

“It’s one of the most international competitions we’ve  ever hosted and we’re expecting the standard to be very high,” she added.

The five day event begins on Saturday, although the Association’s national convention takes place the preceding day on Friday. Over 300 teachers from all over North America are to convene in the home of Disneyworld  to help better the instruction of Irish dancing around the continent.

Lisa adds that between the two events the event’s team of organizers are being kept run off their feet: “Obviously things are extremely busy”, she said, “but I think we’re all running on adrenaline and just so excited about the big event”.

For more information on this year’s competition, visit www.nanationals.net, where for $12 viewers can buy live access to the results as they happen.