Peter has really fluid ankles. He's near perfect in the way you're supposed to turn your feet ... and he can lay down some groundfire. The international circuit loves this kid. – Mark Howard, founder and artistic director of Trinity Academy of Irish Dance
VILLA PARK, Ill. — Peter Dziak camouflages himself well as a typical 14-year-old kid in the suburbs. He rides his bike to friends' houses. He has a paper route. He plays center field for his hometown Villa Park Vipers.
But watch closely during a down moment, when he's waiting for fly balls in the outfield, and Peter's fancy footwork might give away the eighth-grader's international secret identity.
He's the Justin Bieber of the Irish dancing world.
"Sometimes, you know, just randomly when I'm getting bored, I'll just randomly start dancing," said Peter, who last month brought home the World Irish Dancing Championship title from Dublin for the second straight year.
The accomplishment — comparable to back-to-back Super Bowl wins — required Peter to beat 54 top dancers his age from Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, England, Iceland, Brazil, China, Japan and Russia. It inspired a crowd of Irish-dance fans to greet him at O'Hare International Airport when he returned home with the giant silver trophy, and has prompted girls to rush the stage for his picture or autograph at recent dance performances.
"Peter has really fluid ankles. He's near perfect in the way you're supposed to turn your feet ... and he can lay down some groundfire," said Mark Howard, founder and artistic director of Trinity Academy of Irish Dance, which has six locations in Chicago and the suburbs. "The international circuit loves this kid."
Howard and other teachers at the 30-year-old dance school note that the last Chicago student to win the title for the school was Michael Flatley, aka "Lord of the Dance," in 1976.
Still, on most days, in a metropolitan area with a rich Irish history and long-standing appreciation for Irish dance at parades, taverns and downtown theater shows, the freckle-faced Boy Scout's global renown remains under the radar.
"He's a pretty good friend to have," says Andrew Deardurff, a 13-year-old from Elmhurst, Ill., who can count on Peter to ride his bike over at least twice a week to shoot air guns in Andrew's yard.
Peter's parents, Joan and Dick Dziak — who are both mostly Irish, with a bit of Polish on Dick's side — began enrolling their seven children in Irish dance more than a decade ago after feeling morally at odds with some of the suggestive moves their elder daughters learned in mainstream ballet, tap and jazz.
The Dziaks (pronounced De Jacques) liked that Irish dance allowed the family an activity they could all drive to together. They danced at the Downers Grove and Elmhurst studios.
Trinity, which has 1,100 students across Chicago, is designed to teach children discipline, but also that it's OK to fail.
"We feel they are not going to remember what they won, but they'll remember how this organization made them feel — the family atmosphere," Howard said.
At Trinity, every child can participate at his or her own pace, Joan Dziak said.
In Peter's case, that pace was to begin winning competitions almost immediately. He won a regional title his first year in 2006, and then again in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and also a national title in 2011.
All the Dziak children have competed, and two of Peter's siblings — older brother Randy, 17, and older sister Ann, 19 — have also earned national and international rankings.
Joan Dziak still marvels that her children have excelled so much at the activity for which she buys secondhand costumes and helps raise funds for travel expenses.
"Last year, when Peter won, I thought maybe it was a fluke. But then when he got it twice, I was like, 'Wow, he's really good,'" she joked. "Some of these steps he can do, they're really complicated. And he can remember them, but he can't remember to take the garbage out?"
To that end, Joan, who teaches water aerobics, and Dick, who owns a landscaping company, make efforts to keep all their children down-to-earth and well-rounded. Each of the children is home-schooled, which evolves into part-time attendance at the public high school so they can participate in team sports.
For extra cash, Peter and his 11-year-old sister, Mary Ellen, share a paper route. He and Randy have a summer landscaping business called Randy's Lawn Service — and Peter doesn't mind the omission of his name.
Dick helped his sons build a stage in their backyard for Irish-dance practice. In between travels to Canada, Scotland and Ireland for dance competitions, and the three days each week set aside for dance practice, Peter is also an altar boy at his family's church, a goalie for a youth soccer team, an avid swimmer and a paintball lover. He shares a Chicago Cubs-themed bedroom with Randy and sleeps on the top bunk.
"With home schooling, I also think kids at a young age need to be exposed to a lot of things," said Joan Dziak.
A visitor who meets the Dziak children can see how the approach seems to have worked marvelously. They are quick to take a younger sibling in their lap or get lunch started when the others are hungry.
Rosanne Deardurff, Andrew's mother, said Peter's dance victories haven't gone to his head.
"For all he has performed and his great successes and the notoriety around the world, he's a very modest boy," she said. "He's very humble about all his specialness."