Kathleen Fritz, 17, of Hillsborough, poses with her portrait of her former dance teacher, Fedelmia Mullan Davis.
Teenage artist Fritz honors her former dance teacher
Kathleen Fritz, a 17-year-old resident of Hillsborough, unveiled her commissioned portrait of her former dance teacher, Fedelmia Mullan Davis, at an Oct. 27 luncheon in her honor at Manville Fire Co. No. 1.
Mrs. Davis, a native of Derry City in Northern Ireland, is the founder and director of the Davis Academy of Irish Dancing. She has trained Irish dancers in the New Jersey area for 49 years. One was Kathleen, who began her training with Mrs. Davis at 7 years of age after being inspired by a performance of the show, “Riverdance.”
Kathleen continued as both a solo performer and a ceili team dancer for eight years until she was a sophomore in high school. She reluctantly put away her dance shoes in order to focus on her art.
Completing the portrait of Mrs. Davis was a special way for Kathleen to blend her passion for art with her love for Irish dancing.
When asked about the painting, Kathleen said, “I was excited when Mrs. Davis commissioned me to do her portrait. I have so many memories of dance class including blisters and sore muscles!”
As the drape covering the portrait was pulled back, Mrs. Davis held her breath and then broke into a big smile. One of her young students exclaimed, “It looks just like you!”
Kathleen was the 2010 grand prizewinner of the annual Hillsborough Fine Art and Photography Show. As part of the award, she completed a one-year internship with Kevin Murphy of The Art Academy of Hillsborough, where she studied classical techniques of drawing and painting. The culmination of the internship was a commissioned portrait of Doris Duke, which now hangs now in the Peter Biondi Municipal building as one of the first four portraits in the Hillsborough public art collection.
Mr. Murphy invited Kathleen to paint collaboratively with him, like the Master painters and their apprentices did during the time of the Renaissance.
’Kathleen graduated from high school last spring and began an intensive year-long professional training apprenticeship at The Art Academy with Mr. Murphy to train her in the range of skills necessary to function as an independent professional artist.
Mrs. Davis started dancing at the age of five with the Breandan DeGlin Academy of Irish Dancing. During her competitive dancing years, she won hundreds of championships all over Ireland, including three All-Ireland championships and five Ulster championships.
Fedelmia and her journalist husband, Bill, made their home in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) in the southern region of Africa for nine years. It was in that setting where Mrs. Davis began her career as an Irish dance teacher with one student who lived in the neighborhood. After their time in Africa, Fedelmia and her family lived in London for a year before moving to New Jersey. They now live in Clifton.
Upon her arrival in the United States, Mrs. Davis and five other certified teachers founded the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America (IDTANA). The organization today has a membership of more than 600 certified teachers. IDTANA works with the parent body based in Dublin, to standardize dance competitions and assure teacher and adjudicator competency on a world-wide basis.
Mrs. Davis held the position of director of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the IDTANA from the inception of the organization until she retired from that post in 2010. She is currently as one of the vice presidents of international body. Mrs. Davis continues as an official examiner for candidates seeking their teaching certification and/or adjudication certification.
The Davis Academy of Irish Dancing has produced many championship dancers over the years, both solo performers and ceili teams. The dancers compete in local feisanna (a Gaelic term for Irish dance competition), the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, Nationals, All-Irelands, and the World Championships.
Although Mrs. Davis encourages her students to compete, her first passion is teaching; she continues to teach Irish dance classes each week in Manville and Woodbridge.
Although she does not have the time to dance competitively anymore, Kathleen’s toes start tapping whenever she hears an Irish jig. She has come out of retirement a couple of times to be part of the Davis Academy show team for the many performances during the St. Patrick’s Day season.
Kathleen may travel everywhere with her sketch pad and pencil, but once an Irish dancer, always an Irish dancer.
