Annette is a multi-instrumentalist as well as an experienced and accomplished dancer of
​old-style step dancing.  
​She has a passion for teaching and passing on tradition. 

Background

In 2006 I was intrigued with an advertisement for solo step dancing for adults and decided to give it a try. The only way to describe the effect it had on me is to say “I became obsessed” with the steps, footwork, the differing rhythms, the percussive qualities of the dance.  I took a weekly class with “BelfastTrad”, moving up quickly from beginner to advanced level, and started to travel the country looking for different dances, different teachers, from there I started to perform and then teach (full bio below).

Meet Buddy

The unofficial mascot for all things Annette.

Full Bio below ...

"Let me be an inspiration to you;
​I was 40+ when I started to step dance."

But where did it all begin?

My parents met in England, like many of the Irish they had travelled across the water in the 50s to find work, and found each other.   They married and while their children were still young moved back to Ireland.  My father was from Limerick City and my mother from Lurgan, Co Armagh.  They settled in her home town in the late 60s with the arrival of the Goodyear factory and renewed opportunities for employment.

​I did some Irish dancing as a child, but it was in my adult life that I became addicted.  My father was a gifted musician and singer, and it was said that my mother was a great dancer “in her day”.  ​

I was encouraged to play music and started with the tin whistle at a young age, moving on to classical piano soon after.  I would class the piano as my main instrument and I continue to play and teach to this day.  I took up the bassoon in secondary school (in truth, I was forced into it!).  I remember my mother and I going to see the music teacher (Mrs Ethna McLoughlin) to ask if I could take up the flute, she took one look at me (tall for my age) asked to see my hands and said “I have the very thing for you . . . . a bassoon”. (There was no saying no to Mrs McLoughlin!)  Given I was only 11 years old I had no idea what a bassoon was, she took me to her store and showed me a picture of something that looked nothing like a flute . . .

Having said that, I did grow to love the bassoon and within the year I was playing in the regional Junior Wind Band, progressing through the years to first bassoon in the Senior Wind Band and local Newry & Mourne Symphony (amateur) Orchestra.  I went on to study music at the University of Ulster achieving a 2:1 in my BA, with bassoon as my first study and piano as my second. The bassoon travelled with me when I moved to London where I continued to play in an amateur orchestra. 

Bizarrely, I was drawn back to traditional music when I moved overseas to work in the Middle East, and played with many fine musicians and performed regularly with a mixed bag of expats.  We formed a group, calling ourselves “Get Reel” and performed regularly both in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Bahrain. ​

On my return to Ireland I took up the concertina, now there’s a headache!  I had loved the sound for years, and took the plunge through Belfast’s Traditional Music & Dance Society (BelfastTrad), I do love the instrument even though it tortures me at times.

While living in Belfast in the 90s I was coaxed by a flatmate to attend Mary Fox's Set Dancing class; Set Dancing was at the height of its revival in the north and I immediately loved it.  As said, I moved overseas in the late 90s and sadly my dance shoes hardly saw the light of day except on holidays to Ireland (extremely well-travelled shoes!).  I threw myself into playing; whistle with “Get Reel” and with the lovely tax-free money I bought a shiny new Yamaha piano, I had never imagined that one day I would own such a beautiful instrument, it is still one of my most precious possessions.  In recent years I began to self-publish piano arrangements of my favourite folk melodies, you can hear me playing these pieces on my piano page.