Morrison, 23, lives in Damascus with her husband, Tim, and newborn daughter, Gina Marie. She has been dancing for 18 years, since she was a wee little 5-year-old lass.
The idea of learning Irish dancing came to her in a flier as a kindergarten student at St. Jude Catholic School in Aspen Hill, where she grew up. Morrison’s father, from Ireland, encouraged her to take up dancing.
She began studying Irish dance with Margaret Prendergast Moebus, who ran a school in Gaithersburg. Moebus was her ‘‘number-one inspiration” to continue dancing for as long as she did, Morrison said.
Morrison was one of Moebus’ first students when she started teaching in Maryland and her last when she stopped teaching.
‘‘She just always loved it and it was never a chore for her,” Moebus said of Morrison. ‘‘It was always a pleasure to teach her.”
Now Morrison teaches Irish dance to Moebus’ 7-year-old daughter, Amanda.
‘‘Having Annie as her teacher is like coming full circle for me,” Moebus said. ‘‘I admire Annie as a teacher.”
Irish dancing and music have been a large parts of Morrison’s life. She is still close with many of the friends she made as a student at the Prendergast School of Irish Dancing.
In fact, she had Irish dancers and a live Irish band at her wedding in January 2006.
‘‘I had such a ball dancing and it’s been such a big, big part of me that I just want to share it with everyone,” she said.
Morrison opened the Hurley School of Irish Dance in the fall of 2006, just months after graduating from the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore.
Morrison competed in regional, national and world championship Irish dance competitions, called feiseanna, until she was 19 and started nursing school.
‘‘Usually ... dancers will let it go in college or after,” Morrison said. ‘‘Then there are those who go to perform in ‘Riverdance’ or be teachers.”
Morrison stopped competing when she began nursing school so she could concentrate on school, but she did not stop dancing. She got certified to teach Irish dance and began teaching part-time between classes and schoolwork.
Some of the students she taught while she was in Baltimore travel to Laytonsville to continue taking classes with her.
‘‘It’s cool to see them grow,” Morrison said. ‘‘I feel like a mentor for them and set an example for them.”
Morrison has already reached many of her personal goals, now she looks forward to teaching a championship group of dancers and possibly expanding her school.
‘‘I already feel like I need a bigger studio,” Morrison said of the space she just moved into last fall. ‘‘They’re kicking the walls.”
She also offers classes at Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown.
Morrison, who works in the open-heart surgery recovery unit at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, said nursing keeps her grounded. Although she is passionate about both nursing and dancing, she might like dancing a little more, she said while tapping her feet to the music still playing in the studio.
‘‘Sometimes I can’t choose between nursing and dancing. I can’t do both full time,” Morrison said. ‘‘I can always go back to nursing full time if I get tired of dancing, but I don’t think I ever will.”
Morrison has been on maternity leave from the hospital for the past two months, but she continued teaching until her eighth month of pregnancy with help from her senior dancer who served as her ‘‘legs.”
During class one day when she was pregnant, one young girl asked Morrison, ‘‘Do you think the baby’s regular kicking or Irish dancing?”
Morrison replied, ‘‘Oh, she’s Irish dancing.”
