1 630-279-7521

Meet the Judges & Advisors

Bringing joy through dance & music

The distinguished panel of adjudicators will deliver a FRESH eye to dancers' and musicians' talents. Their credentials are more than impressive, don't you agree? Dancers will be judged by fellow dancers and the music entries will be adjudicated separately by the music judge listed below. Judges will be carefully assigned to ensure the most impartial and ethical evaluation of every entry. Our ADVISORS for this competition are listed below. They have proven instrumental in getting this project off the ground! Their credentials are very impressive and we are thankful for their support of this incredible GLOBAL SEARCH for TALENT!

Dance Judges

David Geaney
David Geaney is a native of Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. After an illustrious competitive career, amassing almost every major title alongside his 5 World Championship titles, he has now set his sights on choreographing and performing around the world.
Having been the lead dancer in numerous productions since the age of 8, David has always wanted to be a performer. In 2017, he created his very own production Velocity and debuted it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to rave 5 star reviews. It was there he was spotted and approached to take part in the world’s biggest talent show… Britain’s Got Talent! Having reached the Semi-Finals and having performed to over 13 million people, David moved onto the biggest stage of his career.
In 2018, David’s show had a residency on Broadway, New York! It was hailed by The New York Times as one of the top 7 shows to see in New York!
Known as “The Dingle Dancer” for his amazing performances in his family pub, “The Dingle Pub”, the fastest feet in the West is sure to have you clapping along!www.davidgeaney.ie
Mary Papageorge
20 year old Mary Papageorge is an internationally recognized Irish Dancer from Wisconsin, USA. She is best known for going viral on TikTok with a video to "Fergalicious" which has 30+ million views and over 4 million likes. Her TikTok profile has over 640,000 followers. She’s been recognized by celebrities like JLO, Will Smith, Derek Hough, Jason Derulo, Mark Ballas, Jennifer Aniston, Diplo, Marshmallow, Jordan Fischer, Kristin Cavallari, Sophia Richie, Steve Aoki, Bob Saget, Tia Mowry and so many more. Her dancing has appeared on CBS National News, The Today Show, US Weekly, iHeart Radio, Complex, Upworthy, Catch Central and the Irish Dancing Magazine. Competitively, she is a three-time qualifier for the World Championships, a Medalist in Ireland & Scotland, eight-time North American national medalist and eight-time Mid-America regional medalist, including two top 10 titles. Mary is on Irish Dancing Magazine's March 2021 cover as the featured dance star of the month! photo credit: Jeff Yin Photography
Tyler Schwartz
Tyler Schwartz has been Irish dancing for more than 20 years, competing, performing and spreading the art form. He is the 2013 Senior Men’s World Champion, and has also won championships all over the world, such as the All-Ireland, All-Scotland, Great Britain, and North American Championships. In 2017, Tyler was named “Man of the Year” by Irish Dancing Magazine. He was the first Irish Dancer to become a sponsored athlete for Capezio Dancewear, and has been a featured dancer on Instagram, NowThis, and Buzzfeed. Tyler also holds multiple Irish Dance World Records!Over the years, Tyler has had the opportunity to perform around the world! He has been the lead dancer in many productions, including Rockin’ Road to Dublin, Fusion Fighters, Busch Gardens, Gaelforce Dance, and most recently Disney World! Tyler is currently excited to be launching his own production called ReelRhythm, which explores the many faceted relationship between Irish and Tap dance! www.reelrhythm.dance
AmyMae Dolan
Amy-Mae Dolan from Co. Tyrone, Ireland began dancing at the age of two and went onto win the Worlds as well as many other major championships. In 2016 she attended the Riverdance Summer School and ultimately achieved her lifelong goal of being selected for the Riverdance show. With Riverdance she is a regular lead female as well as performing the Principal role in Dublin during the Pope's visit to Ireland, a highlight of her career. In 2020 she performed as Principal female in the 25th Anniversary Gala Performance of Riverdance along with starring in the documentary "Born to Riverdance." Amy-Mae is a qualified Reformer Pilates instructor and runs a lifestyle, dance and fashion Youtube channel where she absolutely loves to connect with dancers from all over the world. She also likes to spend time catching up with dancers on instagram where she aims to create fun, relatable, helpful content for everyone.
Jack Quinn
Jack began Irish Dance at the age of 6 in Dublin, Ireland. He went onto win a staggering 7 World Championships titles along with numerous other major titles.At the age of 17 he joined the cast of Heartbeat of Home and a year later, the cast of Riverdance. Jack has been touring with both shows ever since. Jack is also an instructor at the Riverdance Summer School both in person and online.He is pursing a BA in Musical Theatre at the Arts Educational School in London.

Cairde
During lockdown a NEW dance group took TikTok by storm and we are delighted to have these young men as part of our judging team at Go Irish Dance. Cairde, pronounced 'cawr-jah,' is the Irish word for 'friends'. They are a group of lads from the West of Ireland who love dancing. The group has amassed over 1.6 million followers on TikTok and they aim to bring the art of Irish Dance to as many people as they can in the most fun and interesting ways possible.
Photo credit: Gary Collins
Niamh Shevlin
Born and raised in County Donegal, Ireland, Niamh began dancing at the age of 4 with her twin brother. Competitively dancing for 15 years, Niamh was a podium placer at many major competitions including Ulster, Irish National, All Scotland, Great Britain and European championships. Niamh was regularly ranked in the top 10 in the World and was part of a winning senior mixed ceili team in 2017. Niamh and her brother Gavin have been performing together globally from a young age and in 2018, they were presented with an All Star Award in Croke Park, Dublin for their contribution to Irish culture. After completing her studies in Early Childhood Education at the age of 21, Niamh achieved a lifelong dream and joined Michael Flatley’s Lord of The Dance in April 2018. Niamh is now both honoured and thrilled to be performing the role of ‘Saoirse’. The highlight of her dancing career was performing the lead role with Lord of The Dance in their ‘Feet of Flames’ production in December 2020.
Morgan Bullock
Morgan Bullock is a 20 year old world ranked Irish Dancer from Virginia, USA who gained popularity for posting videos performing self-choreographed dances to popular songs. She began dancing at 3 years of age, starting off with ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop before transitioning to Irish Dancing at the relatively late age of 10. She quickly rose to champ dancer level under the teachings of Jessie Baffa, a former All Ireland Champ who toured for a decade with Riverdance.
Recently, Morgan made headlines when a video of her Irish Dancing to a popular contemporary song went viral on various social media platforms. Since then, she has gained worldwide support, including being invited by the Prime Minister of Ireland to perform at the 2021 St. Patrick’s Day celebration and to perform with the cast of Riverdance while on their American tour. In August 2020, Morgan was selected as dance star of the month and graced the cover of Irish Dancing Magazine's August/September 2020 cover!
The Gardiner Brothers
We are delighted that fo have The Gardiner Brothers on the Go Irish Dance juding panel! Matthew and Michael began Irish Dance at the age of 3 in America. They moved to Ireland in 2006 and during their competitive career they won over 50 major championship titles, including 5 World championships between them. They made Irish Dance history in 2015 by winning their respective World titles in the same year in Montreal. They are members of the world famous show ‘Riverdance’ and have toured the world with the company. They have become viral on social media, posting Irish Dance videos to various types of music that have wowed a worldwide audience! They both love sharing their talents and the Irish culture with the world for people to enjoy! They also take part in online workshops and seminars for culture and dance and have appeared on National television and radio multiple times. The talented duo appeared on IDM's November - December 2020 cover too!

Music Judge

Amy McNamara Music Judge!
Amy McNamara hails from Tulla, Co. Clare, Ireland, an area steeped in traditional Irish music. She comes from a very musical family and grew up surrounded by the local East Clare style of playing. Amy started playing the fiddle at the early age of eight and was naturally influenced by the local style. She has had much success in many national competitions over the years, most recently winning the Senior Céilí Band competition with the Cnoc na Gaoithe Céilí Band at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Drogheda 2019, as well as winning three Munster titles in a row with the Céilí Band in 2017, 2018 & 2019. Amy is a member of the traditional music group Out the Gap who have toured worldwide with the performing group Cnoc na Gaoithe, most recently performing in Shanghai and South Africa to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish week), as well as touring Europe with her siblings Kate and Gearóid. Amy is a newly qualified primary school teacher and enjoys passing on her love of music to the next generation.

Irish Dance Advisor

Michael Dillon Contest Advisor
Go Irish Dance is delighted to have Michael Dillon as a key partner, advising on this global search for talent. Michael a native of Co Clare, Ireland has been teaching Irish Dance for over 35 years. He moved to the United States in 2010 where he continues to teach and adjudicate. Following his qualification as a teacher he was a lead dancer on many tours of 'on Shannonside', a renowned group of world-class musicians and dancers. Michael moved to Brighton in England, where he had his own school for a number of years and worked as a Tech. Project Manager for Lloyds TSB Bank plc, before moving back to his home village of Kilkishen in 1997. Michael danced on the award winning Guinness TV commercial for Harp Lager and has given workshops all over Europe, from Norway to Austria. He is a qualified adjudicator and Grade Examiner. In early 2020, Michael launched the ‘Covid 19’ Irish Dance teachers’ Facebook group to help teachers across all organizations pool ideas on teaching through the pandemic. There are now over 2,000 members globally of this group. More recently he has set up an online global adult Irish Dance program which has students from Taiwan to Germany and is a founder member of ‘Boscaí Beaga’ (little boxes) online youth Irish drama and production companies

Reel & Heavy/Treble Jig Music Provided by:

Gerry Conlon began his musical career in Irish traditional music in his second year at Saint Roch's secondary school in Glasgow, where he became a founding member of the school ceilidh Band. Under the guidance of the legendary Frank McArdle (principal teacher of Mathematics) he started playing the piano accordion and very quickly progressed from novice to champion. During his traditional music career, Gerry won 12 Great Britain titles and 4 All-Ireland titles on both piano accordion and piano. He also competed in the traditional Scottish music scene and won the All Britain Scottish Piano Accordion Championships in 1982.In recent years, Gerry was musical Consultant to the film “Jig – the movie” and composed much of the incidental music used in the film. He also undertook a similar role in the making of “Irish Dancing Tweens” (a TLC Productions series for Sirens Media), part of which was filmed at the World Championships in Belfast in 2012. Most recently, Gerry was commissioned to compose specific pieces for the show “Murphy’s Legacy” which was touring in Europe and the Middle East until it was abruptly halted by COVID-19 early last year. Grace Conlon has been born into a family with a strong musical & dancing tradition. Taking to the stage at aged 4 to begin her competitive career in Irish dancing, Grace has attained many achievements to date. Placing top 5 in many major competitions including The British Nationals, The Great Britain championships, and The All Scotland championships. She is also extremely proud to be a 6 times Scottish Oireachtas Solo Champion. Grace has an innate and inherited love and appreciation for both Irish Music and dance and has developed a strong musical partnership with Gerry over the last few years. They are about to embark on a new musical chapter which will involve recording more of the tunes that you love for Irish Dancing.