Katie McCall

Katie McCall began her dancing career at the tender age of 3 when her mom enrolled her in Baby Ballet at the local park district. It was then that her lifelong love of dance began ...

 

For the next 10 years, she honed her skills in ballet, pointe, jazz and tap at a local dance school, but after seeing Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance with her family, she was in awe of the style and knew it was time for a change.

 

So at 13, Katie joined the Reel Studio of Irish Dance and began intensive instruction under Julie Creighton-Shannon, a former World Champion dancer and pupil of Michael Flatley himself. Despite Katie's later start to the Irish dancing scene, she quickly progressed through the competitive levels and even had the opportunity to compete at the Regional Mid-America Championships (Oireachtas) three times prior to graduating high school. During her time at Reel Studio, she not only performed all across the Chicagoland for special events, but she also worked as an assistant instructor.

 

Though Katie retired from her competitive dancing career when starting college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she couldn't shake her passion for dance. As a result, she helped form and acted as Co-Director of the university's first collegiate Irish dance troupe - IDentity Irish Dance Company. As one of the lead choreographers, Katie and her elite group performed all over the campus and Chicagoland area, with a highlight of dancing live on WGN Channel 9 News for St. Patrick's Day. Katie was also selected two years in a row to dance alongside the famed Irish rock band - The Dropkick Murphys - at the House of Blues in Chicago.

 

During Katie's senior year at U of I, she was hired as an Irish dance instructor at the Christine Rich Studio - Dance Academy & Performing Arts Center. There, she proudly took a rather uncoordinated group of young students and watched them blossom into graceful Irish dancers!

 

Fast-forward to present day, and Katie is thrilled to return to her dancing roots by joining the Vision Dance family. She hopes to bring her lifelong expertise and love of Irish dance to the community by offering a program that will honor tradition, build confidence, instill discipline ... and most importantly -- be loads o' FUN!