MovementWorks Dance and Fitness, 12077 Leavitt Road in Oberlin, is enrolling for new Irish dance classes beginning Feb 8.

Broken into three difficulty levels, dancers can learn different steps and styles under traditional Irish dance instructor and dancer Claudia Castro.

“I’ve been dancing basically my whole life,” Castro said. “I go back and forth between more modern step dancing and an old style pub kind of dancing.”

Starting with a class tailored for youngsters, Castro said that’s where dancers will learn familiar Irish dance rhythms and movements, as well as skipping and shuffling.

“You’re learning basic rhythms and basic movement, but we’re focusing more on motor development,” Castro said. “We learn more of the stylistic movements that go along with Irish dance.”

Classes advance in skill levels and focuses on important aspects of Irish dance like relying on a partner and different time signatures often used.

Castro said dancers can get a feel for solo work, and dancing to jigs and reels.

“As we work up in age, then we get to more basic Ceili dances, or group dances, and focus really on a community aspect,” she said. “One of my favorite things about Irish dance, is how much it brings people together.”

According to Jess Widener-Pruitt, owner of MovementWorks, Irish dance classes can help children learn and appreciate a new style of dance that highlights its own unique movements.

The style of dance classes is a first for the dance studio, Widener-Pruitt said.

She said she was inspired to offer the classes partly because of her own research into her family lineage that traces back to Ireland.

“It kind off feels important to me to continue on some of the original traditions of where I’ve come from,” Widener-Pruitt said. “It just kind of feels like continuing a tradition, and offering something new to children who may not want a typical dance class.”

Sign ups will continue to be accepted as long as there are spots, she said.

The deadline to register in order to appear in the annual dance showcase is Feb. 14.

Castro said she studied dance in fall 2024 at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland, and plans to apply what she learned to MovementWorks Dance and Fitness.

For more information or to register, visit movementworksdance.com or contact 440-462-8970.