Irish dance academy coming to southeast Idaho

A little bit of Ireland to coming to southeast Idaho, and it’s not potatoes. The first Irish dancing school, O Aois Caite, is coming to Rigby in October.

Heidi Pearce is teaching the new style Irish Step Dancing.

“It started about four hundred years ago in Ireland. Just a conglomeration of all the folk dance they’ve been doing and now we have traditional Irish step dancing. Similar to what you see in Riverdance or lord of the dance,” says Pearce, Director, and Instructor.

There are two styles, hard shoe and soft shoe.

“I like hard shoe because you can make lots of noise and not get in trouble so it’s kind of fun. Then I like soft shoe because it’s graceful and you get to hop around the room,” says Eleanor Clements, dancer.

The school has been without a place to practice for months so they meet where ever they can. They say they’re excited to finally be getting a set place to practice.

“It’s kind of been a dream for a while to teach and just the past couple months just to have my own school. So, it kind of came together quickly, owning my own school and we’re super excited to just be on our own and do our own thing,” says Pearce.

For more information on class schedule and how to sign up, visit their website here. Beginners are welcome and they do hold workshops.