Olivia Hilpl — Founder of Rince Ri School of Irish Dance — A Lifelong Passion

(Photo above: Olivia and her husband Mark Hilpl)

By Marita Krivda Poxon

From her earliest days in Sligo town in the 1960s, Olivia Hilpl, founder of Rince Ri School of Irish Dance in Southampton, PA, was born to dance. She grew up in a family of six siblings all of whom were given dance instructions. But she became the quiet, gifted one in her family who took to dancing and became a champion.

Starting at age four and a half she learned basic Irish dance. A little later she studied with Michael Gillespie who was her skilled dance teacher. He hailed from Ballyshannon, Donegal. She took lessons from him every Saturday for much of her childhood and these lessons lasted a full five hours at a time. He specialized in eight-hand reels. Quickly she mastered these reels entering competitions with the best dancers in Ireland. She proudly speaks about her dancing in competition against Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance:

“Back in my day growing up, Michael Flatley used to come to Sligo to participate in our competitions. I actually competed against him back in the days when he wore a kilt because then girls competed against boys. I believe his grandparents were from the Sligo area. He was around 12 years old then and he would come to compete for the Feis Shligigh held during Easter week…I did not beat him because he was really fantastic. I didn’t know at that time that he was going to make millions.”

As her dancing skills progressed, Olivia performed with a group who entertained in Ballyshannon’s local hotels on Friday nights. These evening shows are among her most cherished teenage memories. Her costume that she wore (which she still owns) is an orange wool, knee-length dress with long sleeves, a full skirt with embroidery, a bodice and an off-white tweed cape. It has a crochet lace collar and cuffs.

Her mother hand applied simple embroidery motifs onto the skirt. Olivia’s costume hangs in her closet today and she has used it to design the costume for today’s Rince Ri dancers. For her own dancers, she changed the color to a much, brighter neon orange so they would have a more vibrant look.

What lured Olivia out of Ireland was a case of burn out when she worked as a nursing assistant with terminally ill children at Sligo General Hospital. She had a chance to work for six months as an au pair for a family in Woodbridge, Virginia in the early 80s. Here she met her future husband Mark Hilpl. Married in 1985 the two settled in Southampton, Bucks County where they have raised their two sons Chris and Conner.

What brought Olivia into the Irish Philadelphia fold was a chance meet up with Attracta O’Malley at a St. Patrick’s Day Parade. She discovered that Attracta’s family had a neighboring property in Mayo that bordered on Mark Hilpl’s grandmother’s property. Of course, Olivia and Mark joined the Mayo Association and became regulars at the Irish Center.

Olivia began Rince Ri, her dance school in 2003, when she approached Upper Southampton Township officials to know whether there was an interest in giving her a place in the township building for her to teach Irish dancing. Her first class had 12 students. It since has grown with classes held after hours in three local parochial schools as well as in the basement of her Upper Southampton home, where her husband installed a spacious dance studio. As her school grew, Olivia looked into securing certification so she would have the necessary qualifications to enter her students into competitions at the local, national and international level.

In 2007, Olivia traveled to a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, given by Cumann Rince Naisiunta (CRN), a major Irish Dancing organization founded in 1982 by dance teachers in Ireland. She decided to take the two-year training course which entailed taking a five part, very intensive exam.

“I had to travel back and forth to Dublin. Not only did I have to know every solo, set and team dance, I had to know every little, intricate hand movement whether for a slip reel or a sixteen-hand reel. Also I had to know how to explain all the dances so I could teach young students. There was a music section as well as an Irish language section. I received my ODCRN diploma certification from Cumann Rince Naisiunta as a qualified Irish dance teacher in 2010.”

Olivia has taken her role in the North America CRN chapter very seriously and has served as its president in 2015-2016. All of this has benefited her legions of students over the years who have had the opportunity to participate in many North American CRN Championship contests, which happen every February in cities which have included San Francisco, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia.

The Covid-19 pandemic did shut down her teaching last March 2020 for a while. However, in August 2020 her husband created separate outdoor wooden dance platforms for four students so she could continue her teaching in a safe way. Now that the weather is cold, she employs strict Covid-19 indoor guidelines so she can teach her students in her basement studio.

Olivia has also mastered how to film her students for virtual CRN digital dance competitions. On November 23, 2020, seventeen of her students competed through videotaped performances submitted to the Berkshire Feilie. Her students won 42 medals.