Where to Study Irish Dance in Lapoint City: A Beginner's Guide to Three Schools

Lapoint City may not be Dublin, but its Irish dance community punches well above its weight. In the past five years, local schools have produced three North American Irish Dance Championship qualifiers, multiple regional titleholders, and a steady pipeline of performers for the city's annual St. Patrick's Day festival. For parents eyeing their child's first soft-shoe class—or adults finally ready to try a reel—three established schools dominate the landscape, each with a distinct philosophy and student culture.

The Emerald Academy

Founded: 2001
Specialization: Performance and competitive step dancing
Best for: Students who want structured progression with frequent stage time

Walk into The Emerald Academy's studio on a Saturday morning and you'll hear the synchronized thunder of hard shoes before you reach the door. Founded by former Riverdance touring member Fiona Delaney, the academy has operated from its current location on Mercer Street for over two decades.

The school follows a traditional TCRG-certified syllabus and sends dancers to six to eight feiseanna annually, including the Midwestern Championships and the Oireachtas. What distinguishes Emerald, however, is its performance calendar. Students appear in roughly ten staged productions each year, from the Lapoint City Arts Council's winter showcase to the Irish American Heritage Center's spring gala.

"We treat every stage as a classroom," says Delaney. "A dancer who can manage nerves at ten handles pressure better at fifteen—whether that's at Worlds or in a job interview."

Emerald runs classes for ages four through adult, though the adult program is smaller and meets twice weekly. Trial classes are available by appointment; monthly tuition ranges from $140–$220 depending on level and class frequency.

Celtic Spirit Dance Studio

Founded: 2008
Specialization: Cultural immersion and multi-tradition Irish dance
Best for: Families and adult beginners seeking context alongside technique

Celtic Spirit Dance Studio occupies a converted warehouse in the Riverdale district, its walls lined with vintage festival posters and photographs of rural Irish dance masters. Director Ciarán Byrne, who emigrated from County Clare in 2005, built the curriculum around a simple premise: technique means more when you understand where the steps come from.

Beginner classes incorporate live fiddle or bodhrán accompaniment roughly once per month. Intermediate and advanced students study not only step dancing but also sean-nós and set dancing, traditions rarely taught at competitive-focused schools. Byrne lectures on dance history at Loyola University and brings that academic rigor into the studio.

The age range is wide—current students span ages five to sixty-three—and the atmosphere is deliberately non-competitive. Celtic Spirit does not send dancers to feiseanna, though students regularly perform at cultural festivals and community ceilís.

"People come in thinking Irish dance is just 'Riverdance,'" Byrne notes. "We try to show them it's a living tradition with regional styles, social functions, and stories attached to every figure."

Drop-in adult beginner classes are $22; children's semester rates start at $380 for one weekly class.

Shamrock Steps School of Dance

Founded: 2014
Specialization: Competitive step dancing with innovative choreography
Best for: Ambitious dancers targeting regional, national, or international competition

Shamrock Steps is the youngest of the three schools but arguably the most visible on the competitive circuit. Under director and former World Championship finalist Aisling Murphy, the school has placed dancers at the North American Championships every year since 2019 and sent its first qualifier to the World Championships in 2023.

Murphy's competitive edge is reinforced by a rotating guest instructor program. In the past eighteen months, the school has hosted workshops with Dublin-based choreographers Colin Dunne and Lauren Smyth, as well as strength-and-conditioning sessions with a former Cirque du Soleil physical therapist.

The school's choreography tends toward the theatrical—Murphy incorporates contemporary movement and non-traditional music into show dances, a style that has won notice at national championships but occasionally draws conservative scores at smaller regional events.

Shamrock Steps operates from a purpose-built facility on the city's east side with sprung floors and video review stations. The competitive track demands significant commitment: novice dancers attend two to three classes weekly, while championship-level students train five to six days per week. Monthly tuition runs $180–$340; private lessons are available at $85 per hour.

"We don't pretend this is a casual hobby at the upper levels," Murphy says. "But we also have recreational dancers who never set foot at a feis and love every minute of it. The key is matching the student to the right path."