Introduction to Irish Step Dance for Kids (Section A: Soft Shoe for Beginners) (Fall 2024) (In Person)

Niall O’Leary, TCRG, ADCRG, and a former All-Ireland and World Champion, is from Dublin, Ireland. His Irish dance teachers included Kevin Massey, proclaimed by Michael Flatley to be the greatest Irish dancer ever, Rory O’Connor, the first man to do Irish dancing on the radio, and Rory’s daughters Breda and Ann. O’Leary qualified as an Irish dance instructor in 1994. In 1996, he put together and choreographed the first-ever multi-national team to compete in the World Irish Dance Championships, including dancers from Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Botswana, the USA and Ireland. He is the Director of the New York City Irish Dance Festival, presented by the Irish Arts Center in May each year, and also runs an Irish Dancing Feis in New York City.

O’Leary performs regularly as a solo artist, in duet with Darrah Carr, and with various acts such as Natalie MacMaster, Cherish The Ladies, The Prodigals, The Andy Cooney Band, and Mick Moloney’s Green Fields of America, as well as with his company, The Niall O’Leary Irish Dance Troupe. He is in constant demand as a performer, choreographer and master instructor, and conducts regular workshops and master classes around the US, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Japan and Thailand.

He has made an instructional video in Irish step dancing entitled ‘Cuts from the Kitchen.’ He is the founding chairman of Úll Mór CCÉ (the Manhattan branch of Comhaltas), a feis musician playing accordion and keyboards, and a practicing architect. O’Leary was honored in 2004 by Irish America Magazine as one of the Top 100 Irish-Americans of the Year.