The 48th World Irish Dancing Championships took place on March 24th - April 1st, 2018 at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, United Kingdom. The event was organised by An Aoimisiúm le Rincí Gaelacha with more than 5,000 competitors. This event is considered the “Olympics” of Irish Dance, one of the prestigious events with elite dancers from all over the world competing to become the “Champions of the World”.
The Seventh Annual O’Keeffe Irish Dance Celebration took place on Thursday, March 15th, in the Saint Maur Fine Arts Auditorium with more than 30 students from Gr. 1 – Gr. 12 performing. Parents, teachers and friends joined this celebration which began with the High School students performing the Irish Dance with hard shoes. This dance is similar to tap dancing and our students staged an outstanding presentation. Following came our youngest dancers from Grade 1 through Grade 4. Our Middle School students danced both with soft and hard shoes demonstrating their ability to perform the Irish stepdance in a variety of rhythms.
Last November 4th, 2017, our Grade 6 students, Rin and Lea competed in the Mainland European and Asian Irish Dancing Championships 2017 in Gdynia, Poland. This event hosted the best dancers from Europe and Asia and we are proud that two of our students represented Japan. Rin placed 4th in the Under 11 Girls group and Lea, 8th in the Under 12 Girls group.
Apprehensions were almost as unusually high as the 29-degree temperatures of the sparkling October day on the Saint Maur team, as the day of the annual Brain Bowl competition dawned.
On Friday, June 2nd, the Saint Maur Community celebrated the annual graduation mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral. This celebration marked the end of 144 years and the beginning of our 145th year as the oldest international school in Japan and the third oldest in the world, as well as being the only Catholic international school in the Diocese of Yokohama, and the only co-educational Catholic international school in the Kanto Plains region.
The digital bus clock displayed bold red numbers - 5:45, the time, we, the members of the 2016 Brain Bowl team were told to arrive at school. The bus soon filled with bleary-eyed, drowsy students and we set off on the long trip to Yokota Air Base - the site of that day’s battle. The subdued bus rolled through the city and along the Tamagawa River while most its occupants slept. I attempted to study what I could, (which was not much) but eventually I too succumbed to the lull of sleep and dozed off in the silent bus.
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83 Yamatecho, Naka Ward Yokohama, Kanagawa 231-8654
Email: info@stmaur.ac.jp
Phone: +81 (0) 45 641 5751
Fax: +81 (0) 45 641 6688
