Carmen passed her TCRG exam (certified Teacher of an Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha) in 2017 and is the “steps encyclopedia” of the Academy. The most difficult of step combinations are stored in her mind and muscle memory forever! Lovingly and patiently she takes children, teenagers and adults by the hand, inspires and “de-frustrates” the young and young-at-heart. Carmen has 18 years of Irish Dance experience including winning the European Ceili Championship and the Solo Vice European title, and has performed extensively throughout Europe, in addition to her teaching and administrative duties at the Academy. 

Philipp’s 16 years of experience have seen him taking the role of dancer, lead dancer and choreographer. He performed routinely for 10 years on stages in all of Europe. As one of the few gentlemen of the Academy, he offers students the different angle to the steps that is needed to understand them. He brought the Fusion Fighters to Austria and teaches body percussion, posture and stage appearance in addition to classical Irish dance.

Katy has been dancing for as long as she can remember. Starting her journey with ballet
and moving on to tap, she has been fascinated by rhythm since a very early age. Like
many others, she fell in love with Irish dancing when Riverdance made its world debut.

Katy spent several years competing at almost every feis in Europe, achieved a recall medal at the All-Ireland Championships in 2015 and finally achieved her long-time goal of becoming European Champion in 2017. She loves coming up with complex rhythm combinations and loves that “aha” moment when her students understand a certain step for the first time. She also teaches physics at a Swiss high school.

Florence has been dancing all her life but didn’t discover her true passion until the age of 13, when a friend of hers asked her to join an Irish dance class. Since then she has devoted her entire spare time to the sport and used every opportunity to improve her dancing. Outside of regular classes she has joined many workshops and small shows to gain more experience.

Whilst still working on her own competitive career Florence enjoys being able to share her love and passion for Irish dance with a new generation of dancers, investing a lot of time and thought into teaching.

The youngest of our team has been taking dance classes from a very young age, but didn’t quite find her dancing style until she tried Irish Dancing at eleven years old. Coming from a musical family, she loves the incredible rythms and the precision of Irish Dancing.

Being both patient and demanding she teaches classes twice a week, which she loves to do. For her, the most fascinating thing about teaching is the amount of different perspectives there can be on one single step. 

 On the side she still goes to school at the Gymnasium Kirschgarten, pursues her own competitive dancing career and plays violin in the “first symphony” orchestra.