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About BTID
Bethlehem Traditional Irish Dance, LLC, offers an alternative to the typical competition-based Irish dance school. Over 100 students from ages 3-70 are given the opportunity to learn traditional Irish dance in an environment focused exclusively on recreational students.
Our classes are designed to meet the needs of the recreational student while still aiming to give a solid foundation in traditional Irish step dance. We recently became affiliated with the World Irish Dance Association, an international non-profit dance organization dedicated to spreading the appreciation of Irish dance and culture around the globe. Our students and teachers have the opportunity to participate in WIDA's grade exam system, which test their knowledge of solo and ceili dances as well as Irish language, culture and geography. All of the teachers are working towards their TCRG, or Irish Dance Teaching Certification, through this program.
About the Teachers
Rose McAvoy has been dancing for over 30 years and teaching Irish dancing since 2002. She currently holds grades 1-7 of the WIDA teaching exams.
Rose began dancing in grade school with Mary Jo O'Donnell and the Irish Heritage Dancers in Schoharie county, where she learned her first ceili dances and jig and reel steps and where getting up to show some steps or pulling the whole room into a ceili dance at just about any occasion was the norm.
Throughout her teens Rose attended the Wild Irish Acres school of Irish Dance, a non-competitive school which accepted students of all ages and backgrounds and performed at shows, parades, and festivals.
Rose started offering Irish dance lessons to her English students while teaching at a private high school in New England in 2002, and quickly had a large troupe of enthusiastic Irish dancers.
After relocating back home to New York in 2011, Rose started offering classes in Bethlehem in 2012 and resides in Delmar with her husband and six children.
Listen to an interview with Rose on the Irish Dance Studio owners podcast.
Miss Rose
Rose (L) and her sister Ellen at a performance with the Chieftains at Proctors, c 1996.
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Miss Maura
Maura Van Dyke danced for the Farrell School until she was 17 and reached Open Championship. She has been teaching almost continuously since then and started teaching for Bethlehem Irish Dance in 2018. She currently holds grade 1of the WIDA teaching exams.
Miss Sara
Sara Gravelle started dancing with the Farrell school in 1999, which is where she started competing. She later switched to the Rosemary Campbell School of Irish Dance where she worked her way from advanced beginner to prizewinner. Her passion for Irish dance was reawakened when she found the adult classes taught by Miss Maura at BTID and she is excited to be teaching!
Miss Nuala
Nuala Breen began dancing at the age of 5, and has been dancing with BTID since the school opened in 2012. For Nuala, dancing has always been an important part of her life and is a way for her to connect with her Irish heritage. She has been co-teaching Irish dance since 2019, and began leading classes in 2022. She is currently a full-time college student and holds grades 1-3 of the WIDA teaching exams.