Summer 2026 Classes
2025 - 26 Calendar
Sept 8 - Dec 16 Fall Semester
Sept 22 - 23 No Class
Oct 6 No Monday evening (rescheduled to Nov 24)
Oct 11 Fall Ceili
Oct 13 No Monday Class
Nov 11 No Tuesday Class
Nov 24 - 25 No Class (yes Monday evening class, rescheduled)
Jan 5 - May 19 Winter/Spring Semester
Jan 6 No Tuesday Class (begins Jan 13)
Jan 19 No Monday Class
Feb 16 - 17 No Class
Mar 16 Monday classes snow makeup night
Mar 17 No Class
Apr 20 - 21 No Class
June 2 - 16 2026 Summer Workshop Series
Summer 2026 Workshop Series
Hard Shoe Basics
Hard Shoe Basics with Erin Blanchard // June 9 & 16 5:45
$40.00
Introduction to traditional jig, reel, and hornpipe rhythms and basics! with Erin Blanchard.
Open to all dancers with some previous soft shoe or percussive experience. For this class, wear hard shoes, tap shoes, or any smooth hard-soled shoe (oxford type).
Tuesdays June 9 & 16
5:45 - 6:30 pm
First Church Cambridge
Strength & Conditioning for Irish Dancers
Strength & Conditioning with Mitzi Eppley, BFA, PTA // Tuesdays 6:30
$75.00
Join Mitzi Eppley, BFA, PTA of the Artistic Athlete Health Collective for a collaborative three-week strength and conditioning series designed with Irish dancers in mind and open to all movers. Led by Mitzi, each session takes a focused, body-region approach to the foundational principles that support dancers at every level -- strength, resilience, mobility, and longevity. Drawing on the clinical expertise the Artistic Athlete Health Collective brings to performing artists across greater Boston's arts community, this series delivers practical, evidence-informed tools to help you move better, train smarter, and sustain your artistry for the long term.
Mitzi is a licensed Physical Therapy Assistant with Artistic Athlete Health Collective, a professional dancer, and a trusted movement guide for artists, dancers, and everyday athletes. With a warm, attuned presence and years of experience in injury prevention and recovery, Mitzi brings clarity, calm, and creativity to every session—group or solo.
Tuesdays, June 2 - 16
6:30 - 7:30 pm
First Church Cambridge
June 2 - Festival Style with Kate Spanos
June 2 - Festival Style with Kate Spanos
$25.00
Work on your control, strength, musicality, and stage presence with this special workshop in festival style Irish dance with Kate Spanos! The session will focus on the techniques that are typical of this style’s “slow” set dances and you will learn some choreographies that put these techniques into practice.
Festival style Irish dance is from the Belfast area of Northern Ireland and was innovated by Patricia Mulholland (or "Miss Mulholland") in the 1930s to 1950s to draw the focus of Irish dance towards individual expression, with a focus on performance and musicality. Festival set dances are much slower than their feis style counterparts, and dancers pay particular attention to expressing "light and shade" in the music. Grace, elegance, and control are key features of festival style.
Level: intermediate/adv hard shoe
Tuesday, June 2
7:30-8:30 pm
First Church Cambridge
Kate Spanos, Ph.D., is a dancer, educator, and scholar with expertise in Irish dance and experience with other global movement traditions. Kate holds a Master’s degree in Traditional Irish Dance Performance from the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music & Dance, and she earned her doctorate in Dance and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland. Kate’s blend of scholarly insight and artistic practice inspires her mission to honor cultural heritage while fostering creativity and connection through performance.
June 9 - Music for Dancers with Laura Feddersen
June 9 - Music for Dancers with Laura Feddersen
$25.00
Fiddle player Laura Feddersen offers an introduction to traditional Irish music for dancers - tune types, music structure, repertoire, and the experience of playing music. Come ready to listen, we’ll do just a little dancing as well, and bring your questions!
Tuesday, June 9
7:30-8:30 pm
First Church Cambridge
Laura Feddersen grew up in a musical family in Bloomington, Indiana, where she spent many a night asleep in a bass case at dances and music parties. At the age of 5 she was compelled to take up the violin herself, eventually performing for the set and square dances in her hometown. She has since traveled far and wide with her unique take on Irish American traditional fiddling, performing and teaching at events such as the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the Swannanoa Gathering, the O’Flaherty Retreat, and the Lotus World Music Festival. She now resides in Boston, where she has recorded and performed with the projects Ship in the Clouds, Wooden Nickels, and the Virtual Behan Sessions, as well as double fiddle projects Life is All Checkered and Brightly or Darkly with Nathan Gourley.
June 16 — Donncha & Celine’s Hard Shoe Slip Jig
June 16 - Donncha & Celine's Hard Shoe Slip Jig
$25.00
This spectacular and unusual slip jig in hard shoes choreography by Donncha Ó Muimhneacháin, performed with Celine Hession, was filmed for RTÉ in 1972. The steps are highly detailed and rhythmically complex and really lovely to dance. One winter, I reconstructed the dance from this Come West Along the Road video and we’ll learn just a couple of the steps in this class.
Level: fast intermediate/advanced hard shoe
Tuesday, June 16
7:30-8:30 pm
First Church Cambridge
Private Lessons
Are you interested in learning a specific dance? Practicing your technique? Getting supportive feedback to bring your dancing to the next level? I offer private and small group lessons.
Focus on technique, steps, improvisation — step dancing, old style steps, sean-nós dance. Approaches I love most include:
- working through tricky spots in steps by creating ease and efficiency in movement
- making improv accessible and less scary, and making the movements feel like your own
- honing musicality
Please email mcgowanirishdance@gmail.com with your interest. Lessons are $40/30 min or $65/50 min, plus studio rental.
Locations
St John’s Arlington
74 Pleasant St., Arlington, MA
free street parking
near 67, 77, 350 bus
Alton Street Dance Arlington
348 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
free street parking
near 67, 77, 350 bus
First Church Cambridge
11 Garden St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
meter street parking
Harvard Square red line & buses
School of
Irish Dance
Classes & Registration
Student Information