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TikTok Star Is Accused of Cultural Appropriation For Irish Dancing

A TikTok star says she’s been accused of cultural appropriation by trolls, as she shares videos of her herself performing Irish dance routines. 

Morgan Bullock, from Richmond, Virginia, has been performing Irish dance routines for the past 10 years. Yet she’s now been slammed after sharing videos on TikTok, as viewers claim she’s appropriating Irish culture.

However, the TikToker has hit back at accusations and argues that ‘people don’t understand the term’.

The TikTok star has been accused of cultural appropriation. Credit: Instagram/@morgvn.elizabeth

In a first-person narrative article in The Guardian, she wrote: “I’m passionate about Irish dance, teaching and my identity as a young woman of colour, so the comments about ‘cultural appropriation’ were quite hurtful.

“I feel like they’ve come from people who don’t understand the term.

“Irish dance is like any other cultural art form, it was created to be shared.

“It’s a dance that was born out of oppression; we can’t lose sight of that. For me, as a little black girl, it was a beautiful art I was desperate to be a part of.”

Morgan became fascinated by Irish dancing when she was just 10-years-old. Credit: Instagram/@morgvn.elizabeth

Aged 10, Morgan became ‘mesmerised’ by Irish dancing when she was taught the dance form for a recital at school.

She said: “My mom was a bit incredulous at first, but she let me give it a shot. I fell in love after my first class.

“Now I’m 20, and Irish dancing is my life. Competitions aren’t that regular in Virginia, but until recently I was travelling every weekend to compete in major events elsewhere in the US, or international shows in Glasgow, Dublin and London.”

The dancer decided to create a TikTok account earlier this year, when she saw it was a trend to create choppy dance routines. However, she was frustrated to learn that this didn’t come as naturally to her.

She admitted: “I was terrible! I tried to learn the routine to ‘Savage’ but I couldn’t move fluidly.”

Morgan says her haters don’t understand the defintion of cultural appropriation. Credit: Instagram/@morgvn.elizabeth

Determined to enjoy the app and simply have fun, Morgan decided to head back to her roots and cleverly, she combined the beat with her Irish dancing footwork.

She said: “To my surprise, hip hop works well with Irish dance choreography – you can tap the beat with your shoes.

“I started getting Facebook friend requests from older Irish people saying how much joy it gives them to see me dance and that my mom must be so proud – it’s very cute.”

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@morgvn.elizabeth

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Written by Aimee Walker

Aimee is a senior content editor at IGV who specialises in finding the best original stories, trending topics and entertainment news. She graduated from Birmingham City University with a degree in Media and Communications.