At 27-years-old, Hollister resident Allison Barnes has it
all.
Hollister – At 27-years-old, Hollister resident Allison Barnes has it all.
She’s happily married, has a beautiful baby daughter, lives a few miles from all of her family and said she’s never had a day where she doesn’t look forward to going to work.
“I love my job,” she said. “It’s so wonderful being able to teach others what I love to do. And all of my students always have smiles on their faces.”
Barnes teaches Irish dancing to more than 60 students. It wasn’t something that she learned because of her nationality or family tradition – she’s only got a pinch of Irish in her. Her dancing career all began on St. Patrick’s Day when she was in kindergarten. A classmate demonstrated some dance moves and immediately she was hooked.
“I went home and showed my mom the moves, or what I thought were the moves, and she asked around and got me into a class,” she said.
Barnes continued to dance throughout her childhood and during high school. She had the chance to visit Ireland twice to compete in the Irish Dancing World Championships. Barnes’ love for the Irish grew even bigger when she visited the country.
“Their green it much different than our green,” she said. “And the people were just so nice. One night my mom and I were eating dinner and we realized we had been in the restaurant for hours. I asked her ‘should we leave?’ but we realized it’s only in America where people eat so fast. Dinner there is about relaxing and enjoying each others company.”
When she reached 19, Barnes said the dance competitions started to wear on her, and she decided to quit dancing, but it didn’t last long. A year later, she realized how much she missed it, and knowing that she didn’t want to compete anymore, she decided teaching would be her next step.
“I started with one student in my mom’s living room,” she said.
Born and raised in Hollister, Barnes said she never imagined she would become a life-long resident, but she feels it’s important to keep her business here.
“I always thought I would get away, but I’ve realized there is a lot of good here,” she said. “There are a lot of kids here who need an activity or sport to be part of. I may not have 600 students in my class, but I know every one of my students names and they’re part of my life.”
Five years from now, Barnes said she hopes to be doing exactly the same thing as she is now. Her daughter, Aislinn, which is an Irish name, is still too young to learn to dance, but Barnes said she loves anything music related and she hopes her daughter will follow in her dance steps in the future.
Christine Tognetti covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330, or [email protected].
