Orlando’s Kaitlyn Sardin is making some noise with her fusion of hip-hop and Irish dance

There are few better feelings than that of practicing a hobby, slowly honing your craft and then being able to spread the joy it brings you with others around you. Though it’s ultimately fulfilling, the pursuit can be a challenging undertaking. Orlando-based dancer Kaitlyn Sardin, however, has achieved it, with a passion that she has embraced for 20 years now. As a child, Sardin began dancing ballet at the Elizabeth Parsons School of Dance. During a ballet recital, she saw a performance of Irish dancing for the first time during the intermission and was immediately fascinated by it. “It was the rhythm of it. It’s so much like a drumbeat, I was like ‘This is incredible.’ I was always obsessed with drums, and I was able to be my own drumbeat with this dance style, and it was so different from ballet,” Sardin says. “I remember thinking ‘I can make noise with this and not get in trouble?’ That was the biggest draw for me.” From the age of 7 on she has been practicing Irish dance, beginning at the Watters Irish Dance School here in Central Florida. Now 26, she has seen multiple successes as a competitor in Irish...