After the dispiriting post earlier, it's a pleasure to point you to The Irish Moves of the Bronx School Dancers.
With a student body that is 71 percent Hispanic and 27 percent black, Public School 59 does not seem an obvious home for a thriving Irish dance troupe. And when Caroline Duggan first arrived from Dublin at age 23 to try her hand as a New York City public school music teacher, it wasn’t. Many of her students had never heard of Ireland. Why, they wanted to know, did she talk funny?
Then, to stave off homesickness, Ms. Duggan hung a “Riverdance” poster in her fifth-floor classroom, and one thing led to another. The children pointed to a long-haired dancer on the poster and asked if it was her. No, she laughed, but I could show you a few steps. The impromptu lesson grew into a wildly popular after-school program and, for the first time last year, a trip to Ireland that still inspires dreamy looks among those lucky enough to go.
After watching the video Keltic Dreams that accompanies the article (and you should to) , it seemed self-evident that Irish dancing is perfect for young kids, a joyous, infectious dance of syncopated rhythm that each can practice on their own but better together.
Students like Jesely, who have embraced Irish dancing as though the culture were their own. Which, in a sense, it now is.
“As I get older I’ll even show my kids, so that way they, like, can spread it around,” Jesely said. “Cause I think like the whole world should know about it.”