The Gardiner story

Our parents left Ireland in 1990 when our mother was offered a job in the United States, and our father received a Green Card. What was supposed to be a two-year adventure turned into sixteen years in Denver, Colorado, where our older sister Anna was born, followed by the two of us.

Even though we were growing up thousands of miles from Ireland, our parents were determined that we would know where we came from. They wanted us to have a strong connection to Irish culture, and that connection came through music, community, and most importantly, Irish dancing.

What began as a way to stay connected to our heritage soon became the defining passion of our lives.

In 2006, our family moved back to Ireland. Anna was 13, Michael was 10, and Matthew was 7. We settled in Galway, where our love of Irish dance continued to grow in the Hession school of dance. Little did our parents know that the activity they introduced us to as children would eventually become our career and take us around the world.

Irish dance opened doors we never could have imagined. It led us to become World Champions, Principal Dancers with Riverdance, performers on stages across the globe, and eventually social media creators with an audience of more than 10 million people.

Today, our work extends far beyond dance. We perform, create content, and speak to organizations around the world about innovation, collaboration, creativity, and embracing change. Yet so much of what we do still traces back to the lessons we learned through Irish culture and Irish dance: discipline, community, resilience, storytelling, and bringing people together.

In a way, our journey has now come full circle.

In 2025, we made the decision to move back to the United States, this time as adults. While both of us studied engineering and architecture and once imagined very different careers, the pandemic changed the trajectory of our lives. As our social media audience grew and new opportunities emerged, we felt called to take a leap and build our business in America.

After hearing countless recommendations, we chose Nashville, Tennessee. The city's creativity, friendliness, and sense of community reminded us of many of the things we love most about Ireland. The fact that Aer Lingus launched a direct flight between Nashville and Dublin at exactly the same time certainly didn't hurt the decision.

Today, we proudly carry both parts of our story with us. We are Irish at heart, deeply connected to our culture, family, and roots, but we are also grateful for the opportunities America has given our family across two generations.

Whether we're performing on stage, creating content, or speaking at conferences, we see ourselves as ambassadors for Irish culture. If there's one thing we've learned, it's that home isn't always one place. Sometimes it's the connection between two places, and for us, that connection will always be Ireland and America.