Valerie Finnigan has been Irish step dancing for over 25 years. She has won numerous awards in competition and in March 2003 was awarded the Teasigicoir Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha (Diploma of the Irish Dance Commission) credentials for teaching Irish dance. She started taking lessons with the O'Connor School of Irish Dance in Northridge, CA. After 4 years, her family moved to Boise, becoming literally Idaho's first family of Irish dance. While in Boise, they founded Irish Heritage of Idaho and helped establish the Treasure Valley Academy of Irish Dance, which would later split into the Boise branches of the Tiernan Irish Dancers and the An Daire Academy. Valerie also started privately coaching dancers and teaching through community education. She has also performed extensively. Notable performances were for Governors Cecil Andrus, Phil Batt, and Dirk Kempthorne, with Golden Bough, the Battlefield Band, the Clumsy Lovers, comedian Hal Roach, and piper Danny McGinley, but her latest triumph took place behind the scenes, coordinating a special performance of her students with the Chieftains.
Mrs. Finnigan is married and has two children, Elizabeth and Ian, who are both aspiring dancers. What spare time she has between raising her children and running the dance school is usually spent playing whistles, harp, and bodhran, fencing, trying to learn the fiddle, dabbling in theater and independent film, writing comic book submissions, trooping with the local chapters of the 501st and Rebel Legion, and enjoying the life of a sci-fi and comic book fan.
