St. Patrick ’s Day will get an early start at Central Library, 140 Sockanosset Cross Road, on Monday, March 6 with a celebration of Irish dance.

Those wishing to attend the event will find it in the James T. Giles Community Room, where student performers will demonstrate traditional Irish dance steps before giving the audience a small workshop in the basics of Irish dance and then leading all who want to participate in a group performance.

A member of the library staff will then read Flying Fleet: A Story of Irish Dance, by  Anna Marlis Burgard, to those in attendance.

“We currently have actually 20 performers planning on coming,” said Meghan Kelly, the owner of the school and one of its instructors. “It’s going to start our March performance season. Typically the week of, no month of, St. Patrick’s day we perform wherever we get asked so we have lots of shows coming up all week long.

The school opened its doors in 2011, but Kelly and her sister Kathleen Kelly-Chilton have been teaching Irish dance since 2006. Before opening the Kelly School, the sisters taught dance at the Irish Ceilidhe Club of Rhode Island, located at 50 America Street here in Cranston. After continuing to grow, they eventually opened the school in Coventry they found interest throughout the state and students now apply to learn from all over Rhode Island, Connecticut and Southeastern Mass.

Locals have not been the only ones to recognize Megan and Kathleen for their work teaching a new generation the art of traditional Irish dance. Both sisters were recognized globally with the honor of receiving the Global Irish Dance Teachers Award for excellence in teaching. 

The Kelly School will be performing across the state in March. Kelly said that the school has several upcoming parades, weddings and private events they’ve been contracted to perform at, though the events the school is most excited for are the shows they put on for children and the elderly.

“We have a lot of schools and nursing homes that we perform at,” Kelly explained. “That’s really our target audience during the day shows. We want to show children what Irish dance is all about but it’s also about volunteering our time with different residents in communities around Rhode Island.”  

For those interested in learning more about Irish dance, Kelly encourages people to come to the library on Monday if they’re free. Not only does she look forward to showing the community a taste of what the students of her school are capable of, the dance workshop will teach those interested everything they need to get a basic understanding of Irish dance.

Those interested in more of the wonderful events and programs Cranston libraries offer check out their website, www.cranstonlibrary.org.