County Tyrone: Irish dancer went from a broken back to winning world titles

BBC News

4 days ago

An Irish dancer who broke two bones in his back as a teenager said he never believed he would go on to win five world titles.Barry Teague, from Dromore in County Tyrone, has clinched five championships in a row, and is due to dance in Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance Feet of Flames production in Taiwan in September.But when he was 14, he was shocked when doctors told him he had broken two vertebrae due to the stresses of playing Gaelic football and Irish dancing. The 21-year-old said the health scare led to him focusing on dancing.
Breaking my back 'a wake-up call'
"Before I broke my back I was dancing three nights a week and playing Gaelic football three nights a week," he told BBC News NI."Sometimes practice for both of those was on the same night."Doctors said it was the strain and far too much overuse - doing two-and-a-half hours of dancing, then getting changed in the car and doing two-and-a-half hours of football."Following his injury Barry had to wear a back brace and cut all sport out of his life for more than a year."In a way, maybe, breaking my back was a good thing as it gave me a bit of a wake-up call – that I wasn't invincible and I can't do everything," he added."It led me to push on hard with the dancing."
His recovery - including monthly trips to Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast as well as physiotherapy appointments - was tough.He said he made sure he followed doctors' orders to ensure minimal recovery time."It was frustrating that I wasn't able to dance, but I knew if I followed what I was meant to do I would be back in no time," he said."When the year was over and I was getting back into routine with dance, I went to personal training to help me get back into shape."It took a while to get back into top shape for competitions."
Barry said being a five-times world champion brought an added pressure."Obviously everybody wants to win, and why would you be doing anything if you didn't want to win?" he said."I never really thought I would win so many times."I was honoured to win it once never mind five times."When I stopped playing football to concentrate on Irish dancing, I just wanted to get better."
Rosalind Middleton, a spinal physiotherapist at the Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, said athletes like Barry can get "an overuse injury", which then can develop into worse conditions. She said these type of injuries can be caused by "the same hyperextension activities and twisting motions, and it's a lot of the same stress in the same area of your body that you get"."It's more common in adolescence because your bones are thinner, you're going through puberty, you're growing," she said."It's getting more understood and, from a rehab point of view, there's no gold standard on treatment and rehabilitation."She said it's important for athletes to "come back from the injury correctly" by taking a break from their sport, eating right, doing rehabilitations and taking part in a strengthening programme. Ms Middleton said "it's impressive" that Barry has "come back to where he's at".
Barry's friends and family recently organised a homecoming event in his hometown to celebrate his achievements in Irish dancing.He said he would like to see more young men compete in the sport at a higher level."I always see really good young males doing really well at Irish dancing and then they disappear from the competitions, and I wonder if it's because they are getting stick at school," he said."I would encourage young males to keep at it as the stick and bullying from peers will all pass. "The lessons that dancing teaches you are brilliant, you get a lot of discipline and your fitness goes through the roof."
Lord of the Dance
Barry is studying engineering management at Ulster University and has two years left before he completes his degree. He said he was looking at the option of dancing full time professionally when he graduates, but for now he is looking forward to performing in Feet of Flames in Taiwan next month."I never dreamed it would take me this far," he said."It was always a dream – you always watched these shows when you were younger but you never think you would be good enough to be successful in an audition. "I'm very grateful it's worked out the way it has."