Triple world champions are few and far between. Teenaged ones rarer still. You can find one of them working in his parents’ plumbing supplies shop in suburban Sydney every Saturday morning when he’s not training, or six days a week in the off-season.
Liam Costello, 19, the slender and immaculately groomed young man who cleans the shop and fills orders for customers is the reigning, three-time Irish Dance world champion. He also has multiple All Ireland, North American and Australian championships under his belt. He won his third Irish Dance world championship in April in Belfast.
“I answer the phone and get all the bits for the plumbers like pipes and faucets and stuff,” says Costello, smiling. “Personally, it’s not what I want to get into but it’s nice to be around family and have some stability.”
When he’s not advising customers on tapware, Costello is preparing for the Australian nationals in Perth in late September and readying himself for a role in a new Irish Dance spectacular, Eireborne, which kicks off on a national tour in Melbourne in late July.
“I’m averaging five hours [of training] a day at the moment,” Costello says. “When I’m going into something like the Worlds, I have to up that to eight or nine hours a day. It’s intense, like being an Olympic athlete.”
Costello is meticulous in nature and describes himself as a perfectionist (“I love precision”). His blue eyes shine as he answers each question carefully, he sometimes touches a silver ring on his index finger or a silver necklace, so fine you can hardly see it. His hair is perfectly slicked like a young Elvis Presley and his sneakers are pristine white.
He shows Guardian Australia his world-beating trophy. It’s as big as the Wimbledon men’s trophy, but Costello is keen on the finer prizes such as a pair of gold cufflinks. “They’re so cute,” he says.
For our photoshoot, he changes into shorts and the black hard pumps worn for Irish dance. The toe boxes are rock hard and make a hell of a sound when he hits the floor with tiny, precise foot movements. His high kicks are astonishing and he doesn’t break a sweat. When he’s done, he offers a humble shrug and a big smile, flexing his ankles.
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In Australia, there’s a social side to Irish dance with community groups holding regular ceilis. But the characteristic rigid torso stepdance form that Costello specialises in is the stuff of hard fought competitions in which children and adults dance off for honours in hard-shoe and soft-shoe categories.
By topping regional and national competitions, dancers can then compete in the world championships against hopefuls from more than 30 countries.
Before Michael Flatley’s Riverdance, the Broadway phenomenon that originated as an interval piece in the 1994 Eurovision song contest, Irish dance competition was largely restricted to Ireland and countries with large immigrant Irish populations. As Riverdance went global, so did Irish dance. Studios opened in Mexico City, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Dubai.
The stakes are made even higher by the fact that successful competitors are frequently scooped up by Riverdance (which continues to tour worldwide) and the many other shows that came in its wake, such as Gaelforce, Heartbeat of Home, Celtic Legends and ProdiJIG.
The intricate footwork and ensemble precision that is a trademark of such productions can only come from years of those competitions, says Costello. “You have to break down every step and make them as perfect as possible because you’re judged on footwork, turnout, posture, everything. The training is about building up the stamina to make it through a full round with everything perfect, without anything out of line.”
Growing up in Sydney’s Hills District, Costello claims to have little contact with his distant Irish heritage. “I believe it was my great, great, great-grandparents on my father’s side who came out to Australia around 1860 from County Cork but that’s as much as I know about my ancestry,” he says.
His first encounter with Irish dance was at an end-of-year school concert. “I remember liking the music but what I really loved were the steps and how precise they were. I really loved that. I love things to be perfect and I like everything to go smoothly. If there’s a bump in the road I go back and make it perfect.”
Aged six at the time, Costello taught himself the rudiments of the Irish dance by watching videos over the summer holidays. “Then as soon as I could get into a class, I jumped at it.”
He copped a bit of flak at school, he says. “Yeah, lots of teasing because I’m the guy who dances and doesn’t do football or soccer or the ‘manly’ sports. Little kids can be brutal and all those harsh words kind of stuck in my brain,” he says quietly. He pauses before shrugging and smiling again. “But over time you become more comfortable with what you do and you surround yourself with supportive people.”
Costello competed in his first Irish Dance world championships, aged 11 (“I came 16th”). In 2016 he won the All Ireland Championships and was runner-up in the 2017 world championships in Dublin. In 2018, he topped the competition and has done so twice more since.
Dancers compete before judges with one or two others on the same stage at the same time, Costello says. Each performs their own routine, hoping to outshine the others on the stage. “You have people doing completely different steps. They’ll be going one way, you’ll be going the other. It can be like bumper cars sometimes.”
It’s pretty hard on the body, too. “I’ve had shin splints – it’s very common because of your feet are banging so hard on the floor. I’ve had knee and ankle problems. I used to have a difficult hip injury from the high kicking.” He speaks matter-of-factly, like the injuries are no big deal.
“Irish dance is a sport as much as an art form,” he says. “It’s like any sport with high impact and intense activity,” he says. “When there is something bothering me I push through, but I know where my limit is”
Costello says he came close to quitting the competition circuit during the pandemic. Travel became impossible. Competitions were postponed then cancelled. He is driven by competing. It was difficult for him to “strive for nothing” without competitions.
“Looking back I am so glad that I was able to push through and continue,” he says, adding that he plans to train for another world championship, but beyond that he wants to break into other dance styles. (His Instagram account is buzzing with hip-hop dance videos.) “My life has been so Irish, Irish, Irish … I’d like to branch out and do everything else.”
For now at least, a stint with Eireborne might provide him with the variety he craves.
“All the music is all from Irish rock stars like U2 and the Cranberries, those kinds of bands. It’s still the whole Irish thing but with a twist,” he says. “It’s pushing boundaries.” He laughs in a sweet, goofy way. He’s excited about performing but he’s also not sure what’s happening next. He’s on an Irish dance juggernaut right now.
We finish talking, and Costello packs up his shoes, costumes and medals carefully. He puts his delicate silver necklace back on and heads out of the dance studio and into the tentative sunshine.
Eireborne plays at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne, 29 July before embarking on a national tour until 22 August.
