Thirty miles northwest of St. Cloud, in a town of roughly 1,800 people, you can hear the distinctive thud-thud-thud of hard shoes on plywood most weekday afternoons. Avon City, Minnesota, is not where most people would expect to find competitive Irish step dancing. Yet this small farming community has become an unexpected proving ground for some of the Midwest's strongest young dancers.
How Irish Dance Took Root
The scene began in 2003, when Dublin-born Máire O'Shea moved to Avon City after marrying a local man she met during a summer work program in County Kerry. O'Shea, a certified teacher with An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG), started giving lessons in the basement of St. Benedict's Catholic Church. Six children showed up the first week. By 2007, enrollment had outgrown the space, and she opened the O'Shea Academy on Avon City's Main Street.
"People drove from St. Cloud, from Little Falls, even from the Twin Cities on the weekends," O'Shea recalled in a 2019 interview with the St. Cloud Times. "I think families were hungry for something that wasn't ballet or tap, something with a real cultural backbone."
The Crossroads School of Irish Dance followed in 2012, founded by former O'Shea student and TCRG Meghan Donovan. Between the two schools, Avon City now trains roughly 120 dancers annually—an impressive figure for a town without a single traffic light.
From Local Classes to National Stages
Avon City's schools have produced measurable results. Since 2015, O'Shea and Crossroads dancers have combined for seven Mid-America Oireachtas championships, three North American National Championship top-ten placements, and two recalls at the All-Ireland Championships in Dublin. In 2022, Crossroads dancer Colin Brennan became the first Avon City student to medal at the World Championships, taking 24th in the under-14 boys' competition in Belfast.
The schools' success has drawn families from as far as Duluth and Rochester, some relocating specifically for access to high-level instruction. Competition-level dancers at both schools typically practice four to six days per week, balancing rehearsals with homework and, for many, farm chores.
"It's a lot of driving for us," said Lisa Brennan, Colin's mother, in a 2023 interview with Irish Dancing Magazine. "But when your kid finds the thing that makes them get up at 5 a.m. without complaining, you figure it out."
The Irish Heritage Festival
The community's commitment crystallizes each September at the Avon City Irish Heritage Festival, held on the grounds of the Stearns County Fairgrounds just east of town. Now in its fourteenth year, the 2024 festival drew an estimated 3,200 attendees—nearly double Avon City's population.
The festival features back-to-back stage performances from both local schools, plus ceili bands from Minneapolis and Chicago, sheepdog demonstrations, and a step-dance competition open to beginners through championship levels. Food vendors sell soda bread, boxty, and corned beef sandwiches. A craft fair sells Aran sweaters and hand-knit dance socks.
For one weekend, the fairgrounds become the busiest spot in the county.
Why Avon City?
The question persists: why here, rather than St. Cloud or Minneapolis? Part of the answer is O'Shea herself, whose presence created an anchor that attracted other families and, eventually, a second school. Part is economic: Avon City's lower cost of living allowed both schools to lease large studio spaces at rates that would be impossible in a major metro area.
There is also a cultural fit. Stearns County has one of the highest concentrations of German-Catholic heritage in the United States, and locals describe a natural overlap between the county's parish-hall social traditions and the communal, church-adjacent origins of Irish dance in America.
"When you grow up going to polka festivals and church basement suppers, a feis doesn't feel that foreign," Donovan told the St. Cloud Times in 2021.
Looking Ahead
Enrollment at O'Shea Academy rose 40% between 2019 and 2024, even as many rural Minnesota communities lost young families. Crossroads expanded into a second location in St. Cloud in 2022, though Donovan keeps her headquarters and competitive program in Avon City.
Both schools have invested heavily in younger dancers. O'Shea Academy now runs a "pre-beginner" program for children as young as three, and Crossroads launched a boys-only class in 2023 after Brennan's World Championship success sparked renewed local interest.
The pipeline appears secure. At the 2024 Heritage Festival, more than half the performers were under age twelve.
Visiting Avon City
For dancers or curious observers, Avon City offers concrete entry points. Both schools hold trial classes monthly and
