By [Your Name] | May 11, 2024
On a Tuesday evening in mid-April, the basement of St. Theresa's Parish in Beaverdale rattles with the percussive strike of fiberglass against hardwood. Fifteen girls and two boys, ages seven to seventeen, line up in pressed vests and elaborate wigs of tight ringlets, rehearsing a four-hand ceili routine they will perform at the Midwest Regional Oireachtas in Chicago this November.
This is not your average after-school activity. It's the competition season at Brennan School of Irish Dance, one of two accredited Irish dance schools operating within Beaverdale city limits—and one of dozens across Iowa seeing enrollment swell post-pandemic.
"We're at capacity in four of our six beginner classes," says Maire Brennan, 42, who founded the school in 2016 after retiring from Riverdance's North American tour. "I turned away twenty families in January. That's never happened before."
A Local Surge With Deep Roots
Brennan's isn't alone. Celtic Steps Irish Dance Academy, located three miles east in the Beaverdale Community Center, has grown from 34 students in 2022 to 71 this spring, according to director Sean O'Donnell, 55. O'Donnell, who emigrated from County Cork in 1998, attributes the spike partly to TikTok—viral clips of elite Irish dancers have amassed billions of views—and partly to a broader hunger for in-person cultural instruction after years of Zoom schooling.
"Parents tell me they want something with discipline and storytelling," O'Donnell says. "A kid learns a reel not just as steps, but as music that carried people through famine, through emigration."
The schools operate under An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, the Dublin-based commission that governs competitive Irish dance worldwide. Both Brennan and O'Donnell are certified TCRG instructors, meaning they passed examinations in Irish music theory, dance technique, and the Irish language. Their students compete at feiseanna (pronounced fesh-uh-nuh), weekend-long competitions judged on timing, posture, and presentation.
The Cost of Commitment
For competitive dancers, the commitment is substantial. Clara Hennessy, 16, a Brennan student since age six, practices four weekdays and most Saturday mornings. Her competition dresses—hand-embroidered with Celtic knotwork and Swarovski crystals—cost between $1,200 and $2,800. She estimates her family spends roughly $4,000 annually on tuition, costumes, feis entry fees, and travel.
"A lot of people think it's just Lord of the Dance and big smiles," Hennessy says, adjusting the heavy buckles on her hard shoes before a solo rehearsal. "They don't see the blisters. Or the mental game of getting back up after a bad round."
Last March, Hennessy placed 12th in the U16 ladies' reel at the Kansas City Feis, qualifying her for the North American Nationals in Phoenix this July. She is the first Brennan dancer to advance to that level.
Her mother, Eileen Hennessy, 48, volunteers as a feis registrar and helps coordinate carpools for families traveling to out-of-state competitions. "It's intense," she admits. "But the community is what keeps you here. These kids have grown up together. They know each other's injuries, superstitions, everything."
Tradition in Transition
Both schools have adapted to modern pressures without abandoning tradition. Brennan livestreams her beginners' classes for students in rural Iowa who cannot commute twice weekly. Celtic Steps launched a "Dance for Dementia" program in 2023, sending advanced students to perform soft-shoe routines at local memory-care facilities.
Yet some old rules remain non-negotiable. Male dancers still wear jackets and ties for competition. Wigs—once optional—are now standard for girls at the championship level, a convention some parents quietly resent for its cost and cosmetic emphasis.
"The commission has banned tanning and false eyelashes for minors, which helped," O'Donnell notes. "But the sport has become more athletic and more expensive. There's tension there. We try to keep it accessible."
To that end, Celtic Steps offers a sliding-scale tuition program and maintains a "dress closet" of donated competition costumes. Brennan waives fees for her three Ukrainian refugee students, funded by a small community grant.
What's Next
The immediate focus for both schools is the Beaverdale Summer Ceili, a free outdoor performance scheduled for June 15 at Beaverdale Park. Approximately forty dancers will perform. It's the first time the schools have collaborated on a
