Diversity Comes to Irish Dancing

Neustadt in Holstein, Germany – August 4, 2019, European Folklore Festival. Folk Dance Group. traditional dance, Set-Dancing, Irish folk dance in contemporary Irish black shoes / iStock

Imani Johnson has made mainstream news headlines and achieved Internet stardom due to her love for Irish dancing.

The Black Atlanta teenager “is one of the best Irish dancers in the country” as reported by Essence, and her impressive skills have earned her a slew of awards and accolades, including placing “second in her age group at the U.S. nationals in 2021 [and] w[inning] her group in the Southern regionals in 2018 and 2019.”

Johnson was one of the few Black competitors in Irish dance when she first started out and said “it was a bit challenging at first. ‘I would want to see someone like me, so I could have someone to relate to.”