Caleb at the recent World Irish Dance Competition in Montreal.

Caleb Arcand-Hawryliw may come from Métis heritage but he has taken a real shine to traditional Irish dancing.

The 13-year-old boy, who hails from Vonda about 50 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, is one of a handful of people from this province who competed in Montreal last month at the World Irish Dance Competition where he placed 30^th in his age group of 12-13-year-old boys.

He also competed at the world competition in London, England last year giving him his first taste of the vast amount of experience needed and what this level of competition entails.

Caleb placed second within his age group in the Western Canadian Irish Dance Competition in Calgary last October which qualified him for this year’s world competition in Montreal.

He also plans to compete in the upcoming North American Nationals to be held in Providence, Rhode Island in July.

His mother Jeanette Arcand-Hawryliw says there is a long tradition of dancing in the family so she is not surprised Caleb has taken it up competitively.

“Just within his school he started when he was five but he’d been dancing long before that,” she says. “My sister-in-law was a competitive dancer, my mom, my sister and I all did it recreationally – so, I guess he’s pretty much been doing it since he could walk.”

She says in order to compete at the highest levels of dance, Caleb needs to put in countless hours of practice weekly both at Blakey School of Irish Dance in Saskatoon as well as on his own at home.

“He’s at practices at least three times a week. Right now, his heaviest days are on Monday, he goes for 5:30 p.m. and finishes at 10 p.m. And then there’s the practice at home in between all his dance classes and he has to be able to come back and show that, ‘yes, I’ve worked on what you told me to work on and we’ve improved it.’”

She adds her son really got a taste of how intense international competition in Irish dance is when they traveled to London last year and Montreal was much the same.

“It (London) was a shell shocker is what it was. So, for us to go there it was already a big city to start with and now you have upwards of 30,000 Irish dancers all in this one city competing for the top of their age category. It was intense.”

For his part, Caleb says he tries to keep an even keel before dance competitions but admits at times he does get a little nervous.

“Sometimes when I’m by the side of the stage I feel like I’m going to puke but I actually don’t,” he says.

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