When you're young and have older siblings, you are often forced to attend their competitions, sporting events, or other activities. You often get so burned out on their activities that you'll want to avoid doing them yourself.


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That's not the case for Casper teen Tom Gorman. It was the fear of missing out that attracted him to follow in his older sister's Irish dancing footsteps.

My mom and sister were getting to go to all these cool places. My sister got to go to Providence for nationals...I still haven't been to Providence, and I'm still jealous of that.

Until he was seven, the teenager from Casper had no desire to take up Irish dancing, but the FOMO and being asked multiple times by the teacher was enough for him to change his mind. Once he started dancing, he never looked back. He's been performing at the Michael Patrick Gallagher School of Irish Dance for several years and has had the opportunity to travel and perform worldwide, and he's pretty darn good at it.

That's not bad for a kid tired of not going to cool places with his mom and sister.

 

 

 

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Over St. Patrick's Day weekend, Casper's MPG dancers were a busy bunch of kids. They performed 22 times in 36 hours.


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After a couple of days of recovery, they resumed getting ready for the next competition that would happen soon. Tom's next trip is to the World Irish Dance Championships, which will take place during his spring break at NC.

World's will be in Glasgow, Scotland, over the entire next week. We get to leave Friday, and I think we're flying into London. Then we're taking a train into Glasgow...that'll be so cool.

A young Irish dancer's schedule is full. There are only a few weeks each year when they have downtime, but that doesn't stop Tom from being active. After returning from the competition in Glasgow, he will jump right into the track season and prepare for the next round of Irish dance competition.

You can follow the journey of Casper's MPG dancers on their Instagram page....@MPGinWY

Keep Casper Beautiful Public Art

Beginning in 2016 the City of Casper and Art 3-2-1 have been working together to wrap traffic light control boxes all over the city. New boxes are wrapped with original artwork from Natrona County artists.

2021 Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival

Central Wyoming Sidewalk Chalk Artists showing off their skills.