Ashling Woods Larkin started Collide Dance Academy in 2005 in the Enfield Community Hall with just six students before moving her classes to Ringsend. Thanks to her devotion and dedication, the academy has received numerous awards over the last eight years including the Dublin Bus Community Development Award, The Aviva Stadium Recognition Award, many Dublin Docklands Young Achiever Awards and also Hip Hop titles in the All Ireland International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA) Dance Championships.
Collide’s success now sees the commencement of classical ballet classes in St.Patrick’s Boys School in Ringsend, a first for the area. Ashling trained in ballet from the age of four at Scoil Mhuire in Sandymount and went on to vocational training at Inchicore College. She gained qualifications with two of the world’s biggest teaching organisations, the IDTA and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) and trained in Vienna upon gaining a scholarship to the Impulstanz, the Vienna International Dance Festival.
Ashling tells NewsFour, “Ballet in Ringsend is something I have always dreamed of doing. I believe in Ringsend and all its character and I believe the children of Ringsend and surrounding areas deserve the very best in dance education.”
Ashling is extremely proud of her students and says, “I am beyond proud to have international standard hip hop classes with a world hip hop semi-finalist teacher and now ballet classes in my own community. Mr Booth in St Patrick’s Boys School has been instrumental in this big step for me.
To do what I believe is my vocation and not my job, in my own community to such a high standard is an absolute honour and I cannot thank all my students and parents enough for their ongoing support. I would also like to wish all my stars and their families a very merry Christmas and a fabulous new year.”
For more info: collidedanceacademy@gmail.com or find them on Facebook
Above: (left to right) Lillie, Nicole, Sophie, Nevaeh, Aoibheann and Autumn Rose all ready for class.
By Donna Dunne
