Cara Fox: Overcoming Adversity
Adversity: a difficult and unpleasant situation.
Many of us have been through adversity in one form or another. Most have had to overcome something or face something that was unpleasant and challenging; unfortunately it’s part of life. Often, particularly in sport, we think of encountering and hopefully overcoming such adversity as part of the journey to the top. We’re interested in what obstacles an athlete had to overcome in order to get that incredible win, or what struggles they had to endure to achieve an accolade. An issue that gets less attention is the unfortunate negativity that can occur after a big win, or after someone becomes a champion. The issue of a young dancer experiencing adversity after winning a title is rarely touched on.
Cara Fox is an incredible young dancer from Scoil Rince McGee O’Shea in London. Dancing within the Southern England Region of Comhdhail, Cara comes from a long line of Irish dancers. Her mother, auntie, grandmother and grandfather are all qualified teachers and adjudicators — in his day, Cara’s grandfather won no fewer than 7 An Coimisiún All Ireland titles! Hailing from a family such as this meant there wasn’t a formal introduction to Irish dance as such; it was simply a part of family life.
Cara with her family after winning the world title in 2018.
Cara’s first feis was a memorable encounter — Cara’s Irish family flew over to London to see her dance at a competition for the very first time. “My whole family had flown over from Ireland to watch and as I got up to do my 7s my hand flew from my side and I waved at my Auntie Trina as if to say ‘Look at me auntie! I’m dancing!’ It’s safe to say that I did not win that day!”
With this (quite common) initial lesson learned, Cara flew through the grades and continued to progress once she had broken into open. It wasn’t long before Cara started to get noticed as one to watch at feiseanna, and England regional titles were soon in the bag.
In 2016 after recovering from a serious injury, Cara placed highly in the North Kildare Championships, and this gave her the drive to set herself the goal of achieving a world title. Later that season Cara traveled to the Comhdhail World Championships and came 43rd — a fantastic result for many, but Cara being Cara, obviously this wasn’t enough. A year later she was back and placed 9th. Again, not overly happy with her placing, she formulated a plan. “When I didn’t place at the World Championships in 2015 I confided to my mum that I really wanted to reach for the top spot, and she immediately got to work. She planned how I would eat healthy meals, and helped me write a study schedule and booked in more training hours at the studio.”
And together they worked and worked and worked, and it paid off.
Cara Fox won the Comhdhail world title in 2017. This made her the first person from London to achieve Comhdhail’s highest honour. Then she did it again. And then she did it again! In 2018 and 2019 Cara stood at the very top of the podium looking out to an elated, cheering crowd.
She did it again... and again... and again!
It was a time filled with happiness for sure: a life-long dream had been realized. After 9 All England titles and many other regional and national titles, Cara had scaled to the very top, not once, not twice, but three times. However, adversity, in the form of negative comments on Voy Forums, came to have a draining effect on this period of Cara’s life, a period in which there should have been nothing but happiness and a sense of well-deserved achievement.
Q - Tell us about your experience with Voy. What was said on the forum?
A - People claimed that I didn’t deserve the win. It wasn’t too bad the first year I won, but it became much worse the second time.
Q - How did it make you feel?
A - Like any form of hate it obviously made me feel angry at some points, upset at others, and then utterly determined. I think sitting behind a keyboard is incredibly easy, and I try to remind myself that they don’t know my journey, only my destination.
Q - How did you react?
A - Mostly I try not to react, which is hard because I am a very emotional person. But reacting is just inviting people to do it all over again and I would rather spend my time on something more productive than arguing with people who obviously have their minds made up.
Q - What did you learn from the experience?
A - Honestly, it made me a lot stronger. I used to be very much a people pleaser, and I’ve learnt that there is always going to be someone out there who doesn’t like what you’re doing. Not that you shouldn’t listen to criticism, but only accept constructive criticism, the kind that will help you improve and that you can learn from.
Cara’s ability to transform negativity into positivity and use that to fuel her successes is commendable. We live in a society where a handful of people consider it ok to downplay the successes of others anonymously online, but we also have the power to choose what we do with that information. Cara is a shining light, a perfect example of how to treat the negativity. Burn it, use it as fuel, channel it and then smile brighter when we win again.
We asked Cara the following questions:
Q - Who would you say has had the biggest impact on your Irish Dancing and why?
A - Definitely my mother. Firstly, because she literally taught me how to dance. But secondly, because she believes in me when I tend not to. She is the driving force behind my dancing career, and I owe all my success to her, of that there is no doubt.
Q - Give us an insight into your practice regime in the build up to a big event?
A - It’s important to have a rest day in the week and I usually rest for the 1 or 2 days leading up to a big competition. In the months beforehand I train 5 or 6 times a week, although not all of this is dancing. It is also important to cross train, whether this be HIIT, core or skipping.
Q - Who is your favourite Irish dancer currently?
A - While we’ve been in lockdown I have, like many others I imagine, become obsessed with tiktok. On tiktok I found Owen Luebbers. I find it so fascinating how he brings Irish dancing to a modern audience by choreographing traditional steps to new music.
Q - Do you have a strategy for preparing for a big competition?
A - My first step is to eat right. Have a good dinner the night before. I’m not usually in the mood for breakfast but I eat anyway, usually bacon sandwiches. Then throughout the day I will eat light carbs, bananas or jelly sweets to keep my energy up. At some point before my first dance I like to take some time to compose myself. Whether this is while doing my makeup or just a moment alone, I listen to some music and visualise my dances on stage. It helps to calm my nerves when I eventually get on stage.
Q - What characteristics do you think a dancer needs in order to become the best?
A - Determination. You can have all the talent in the world but if you are not willing to put in the hours you may as well be wasting your time.
Q - Did you ever go through a period in your dancing career where you no longer loved it?
A - In my early teens I definitely fell out of love with the sport. I think it took me seeing a future where I couldn’t dance (because of injury) that made me realise that I probably couldn’t live without Irish dance.
Q - What would you say is your biggest ever achievement In Irish Dancing?
A - Obviously winning three consecutive world titles is a great achievement but I think coming back from injury is probably my biggest ever achievement. I was really upset and the rehab was very hard work. My injury came at a time when I didn’t absolutely love Irish dancing so it would have been easy to quit, but I’m glad I didn’t.
Q - What do you feel when you are on stage?
A - I am nervous while standing side stage. I always say good luck to the girl I’m dancing with and I always rub my feet and stand on my toes. Once I’m on I repeat positive mantras like ‘you can do this’ or ‘this will be your best performance’. This helps me deal with nerves, my mum says to send the butterflies straight to my feet so I can lift more.
Q - Do you feel pressure in the run up to an event or at a big event? How do you try and deal with this?
A - I feel pressure, I try my best to remember that only a certain number of things are within my control. As long as I remind myself that everything I could have done has been done, then I can remain calm.
Q - Are there any crossover skills/attributes that you have taken from Irish dancing into other aspects of your life?
A - Irish dancing has taught me that if you set a goal and you monitor your progress, with support from a team around you, you can reach your goals and sometimes even surpass them! But above all you have to be willing to make sacrifices and push beyond pain barriers you never imagine existed.
Q - Do you have any words or a poem or quotes that lift you up?
A –‘You don’t win a worlds sitting on the sofa.’ I use this when I am questioning myself or struggling with practice. It’s a quote from my Mum!
Cara has experienced her fair share of adversity, especially during a period of her dancing career when things should have felt just perfect. She could have easily let the keyboard warriors get the better of her, but no. Carrying on when things are tough is what separates the champions from the rest. Champions will not be sidelined; they will not be distracted or manipulated. They rise up higher. That is exactly what Cara did, and now Cara will always be remembered as not only the first Comhdhail World champion from London, but the first three time World champion from London. Some of us might be able to relate to the difficulties Cara went through, but all of us have the potential to learn to channel negativity and turn it into a positive like Cara did. FEIS App is incredibly proud to have shared Cara’s story and wishes Cara the best of luck in her future.