Standing on the sidewalk along South Perry Streetnear a Dutch windmill that houses a natural-foods store and a service station-turned-coffee shopone can hear flurries of stomps and taps most evenings.


Peer through the picture windows of a former antique store there, and youll see a group of dancers, their upper bodies mostly still and their feet moving furiously across the wood floor.


The woman dancing in the leadthe one whos taller than most students but looks like one of the teenagersis Caitlin Abeid. Shes the owner of the buildings tenant, Haran School of Irish Dance, and is the oldest daughter in a family that has introduced the traditional style of dance to many in the Inland Northwest.


Anybody can do it if they try, the 22-year-old dancer and entrepreneur says.


Abeid started the Spokane school three years ago, after teaching Irish dance classes at a Spokane dance school for a year and seeing strong demand for instruction in that style of dance.


Irish dancing gained recognition in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, when Irish dancer Michael Flatley emerged into popular culture with the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance stage shows. Thanks largely to his shows, more people became interested in learning that style of dance, Abeid says. Others at least could recognize it by the relatively still upper bodies and fast moving feet of the dancers.


The school has grown quickly and now offers 20 Irish dancing classes a week at its South Hill studioall taught by Abeidto a total of 100 students.


She also offers private lessons through the school and coaches a competitive dance team that includes her students and the students of her 20-year-old sister, Claire, who operates the Haran School of Dance that their late mother, Deirdre Abeid, founded in Kettle Falls, Wash. Deirdre Abeids maiden name was Haran.


The schools share the same name, but operate as separate businesses.


At the Spokane dance studio, students range in age from 5 years old to 55. Most are young girls. Overall, more than 90 percent are female.


Classes cost $50 a month per student. Private lessons are $30 an hour.


The Spokane school has grown to its current sizeand wont be accepting more students until the fallstrictly via word-of-mouth advertising. Abeid says she hasnt marketed the schools offerings actively. Its telephone number isnt even listed in the Qwest Dex telephone directory.


With St. Patricks Day approaching, the school will be performing for a number of different organizations and will be participating in the St. Patricks Day parade, which generates some interest in the Irish dancing style.


For those in Irish dancing circles, the Abeids and their Haran Dancers carry with them a solid reputation thats effective advertising in its own right. Maggie Corrigan, director of Baile Glas Irish Dancers, of Seattle, says some dancers from the Haran schools competed earlier this month in the Emerald City Feis, an annual Irish dance competition that Baile Glas hosts with another dance school there.


I was delighted to see the Haran dancers again, Corrigan says. We awarded many trophies to the Haran dancers, and they have a lovely, light style thats fun to watch.


She adds, When I watch the Haran dancers, I know that Deirdre is not far away, and Caitlin will continue in a great tradition.


Family tradition


The foundation of that reputation is the early work of Caitlin Abeids late mother, Deirdre, who died last May at age 48 after a three-year battle with cancer.


Deirdre Abeid began teaching dance classes in the garage of the familys home in Kettle Falls when Caitlin was 8 years old. At first, she provided informal instruction for the two Abeid girls and their friends.


People really didnt know what it was to begin with, Caitlin Abeid says. No one had seen Riverdance yet.


Deirdre, whose own mother immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland, had learned some Irish dancing as a child. As an adult, she took dance workshops and became certified through a commission in Ireland to teach Irish dance. Caitlin Abeid was 12 when her mother became a certified teacher, and the Abeid girls immersed themselves in the craft at about that time.


Shortly thereafter, the Abeid family bought an old feed store in Kettle Falls. Caitlins dad, Simon Abeid, remodeled the building into a dance studio, and the school grew from there.


Now under Claire Abeids direction, that school currently has 80 studentsnot bad, Caitlin Abeid says, for being in a small town of about 1,600 people.


Deirdre Abeid wasnt fully Irish, and Simon Abeid is Lebanese, so Caitlin says she and her sister are about a quarter Irish.


She says about 70 percent of her students have some Irish heritage, but many simply are intrigued by the dance style and want to learn it.


Abeid has been to Ireland twice, traveling with Haran dancers as a teenager both times to take lessons from those steeped in the technique in the homeland.


Irish dancers are much more fun to watch, she says. It seems like were more aggressive in our dancing over here.


Abeid is heading back to Ireland in late March to compete in the World Championships after qualifying in the U.S. championships last fall. She had qualified for the World Championships in 1999, but couldnt afford to go to Ireland at that time.


Corrigan says Abeid has a special style of dance.


I remember watching Caitlin dance and noticing her presence on stage, she says. More than correct posture or a smile, there is a natural energy that radiates a light and joyful spirit.


Irish styles


Generally speaking, Irish dancing is broken into two different styleshard shoe and soft shoe.


Hard-shoe dancing involves intricate, fast-moving footwork, similar to that of tap dancing, except that dancers click with their toe more than their heel.


Soft-shoe is very high energy and involves more leaps and traveling across a dance floor or stage, Abeid says. Dancers are on their toes a lot, as in ballet. The Irish style requires more strength than ballet, she says, but doesnt require the degree of flexibility that ballet commands.


Generally speaking, she says, more different body types are acceptable in Irish dance than in other styles.