Malverne lass jigs her way to the big screen

Julia O’Rourke is the face of Irish Step Dance.

The 12-year-old Malverne girl was one of nine people featured in the film “Jig,” a documentary about children and teens who competed in the 40th World Irish Dance Championship last year, and, being the only American, she has since become somewhat of its unofficial representative.

Julia’s beautiful face — which takes some of its delicate features from her Irish father and others from her Filipino mother — adorns the official “Jig” movie poster and pops up several times throughout the two-minute movie trailer. While seeing her image in print is “exciting” for the accomplished dancer, seeing herself on camera irked Julia at first.

“It’s fun,” she said, “but I didn’t know I had such a high-pitched voice.”

What’s more important to Julia, who will begin seventh grade at St. Agnes Cathedral School in Rockville Centre in the fall, is that the movie publicize her beloved avocation and could help launch it to the mainstream.

“I hope that the movie will spread Irish Dancing,” she said in a recent interview with the Herald. “Right now, it’s not a famous sport, but the movie would make it more popular.”

The 90-minute film, made by award-winning Scottish filmmaker Sue Borne with backing from BBC Scotland, is the story of the 3,000 dancers and their families and teachers who descended upon Glasgow, Scotland, last spring for the 2010 championship. It is the first time an Irish Step Dance championship event has ever been filmed.

“’Jig’ discovers a world of dedication, hard work, obsession, passion,” says a synopsis for the film. “Success and failure and astonishing talents pushed to their limits in the quest for perfection.”

For Julia’s parents, Kevin and Annelyn O’Rourke, the film sheds light on not only the sport itself, but the way it becomes part of the dancers’ lives and those of their family members.

“It did a great job of portraying the sportsmanship of these kids and how hard they train … and how hard they prepare for six minutes of dancing,” Kevin O’Rouke said.