March is a busy month at Stillson School of Irish Dance in Portland.

Sure, director and instructor Carlene Stillson is preparing her dancers for myriad St. Patrick’s Day performances in schools, nursing homes, bars and parades. But she is also getting ready to see two of them compete in the World Irish Dance Championships (called Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne) at the end of the month in Glasgow, Scotland. She has been running the school for 30 years and currently has about 75 students of all ages and levels. (Her four daughters all danced at the school and were world qualifiers, and three now teach at the school.)

We caught her before she headed out to teach a beginner class of mostly 4-year-olds.

1. How did you start Irish dancing?

I’m originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut. I grew up in a two-family house. My father was the oldest, married at 19. On the other side of the house was my grandparents, who immigrated from Ireland, and my aunt was my Irish dancing teacher. …

We came up here for my husband to go to med school at UNE. We went to St. Mary’s in Biddeford, and the priest gave an Irish blessing at the end of Mass. My husband almost tackled him. He was like, ‘Do you have any Irish people here that my wife can get to know?’ It was Father Connolly who gave me access to St. Mary’s school basement at the time in Biddeford. The kids literally just came downstairs after school. …

I started with those eight dancers, and when “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” came onto the scene, they brought Irish dancing to the forefront globally, and my classes probably tripled. The largest the school has been is about 150 dancers.

2. Your school is “the only certified school of Irish dancing in the state of Maine.” What does that mean?

Years ago in Ireland, originally the dance master used to go town to town and teach steps to the town in exchange for lodging and food. And how it turned into being competitive is when you had a number of dance masters come to your town, and they would have a dance off to see who was better to gain the town’s support for their teachings skills and to win the lodging.

Over time, it progressed into an organization (called An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha). There is a book of 30 ceili dances, which are the group dances. They’ve been written and preserved for hundreds of years, and all of those ceili dances or our team dances are danced exactly as they’re written in the book. There’s no room for embellishment and creativity. Similarly, the set dances are traditionally based over time. I equate that to compulsories in gymnastics or ice skating. You have to do them exactly before you move into more creative interpretations.

(Becoming a certified teacher) requires mastery of that ceili book. There’s a written exam, a music exam. … There is a teaching practicum, and our organization has examiners from all over the world.

3. Are there common misconceptions about Irish dancing that you often have to correct?

Over and above, people say that it’s too intense or it’s too hard or it requires too many hours. We’re only competition-driven. None of that is true. Over the years, our (Cape Elizabeth recreational) class, they dance in bare feet and socks. We don’t require any equipment. There’s choices, and there’s not a lot of “have to’s” about it. If you want to be excellent at something, you do need to choose to do that and put time in. I say you can be good at many things, but you don’t see your professional or Olympic basketball player doing five other sports. We have a number of dancers who literally come once a week for their classes, and that’s perfectly fine. And if they choose to do show teams or competition teams, then that’s a second day, and that’s a choice.

The athleticism of it – for me, it’s a sport. … All of our dancers are pretty good athletes because Irish dancing is pretty similar to jumping rope, where you’re hopping up and down.

4. Do you do anything to recognize St. Patrick’s Day outside of dancing?

I don’t know what we do to recognize the holiday. I think I am the holiday. It’s the same as my birthday, Christmas. St. Patrick’s Day is a huge one because of my memories growing up, my grandparents living next door.

We love having our big Irish breakfast and soda bread and corned beef and cabbage and boiled potatoes. We’ll have that more often throughout the month. I consider it St. Patrick’s month. The state of Maine passed legislation to recognize the observance of St. Patrick’s Day and Irish culture and music throughout the month of March. I printed that legislation, and I have a copy of it. …

Wearing green – I was never a person who was big on wearing green. I wore black throughout because I feel I’m green on the inside. Anybody can be Irish. It’s just jumping up and dancing to the music. Anybody can jump up, and if you can’t dance, you can clap, you can tell a story, you can sing, you can tap your foot, you can bang your spoons together.

5. When can people see Irish dancing outside of St. Patrick’s Day?

We run the Maine State Feis every year the fourth Saturday of July. … We bring in musicians and judges from all over the country. We’ve had dancers participate in our event from as far away as Ireland and England. …

The kids will do dances for weddings throughout the year. In the summer, there’s a lot of Irish festivals that we participate in in Maine and New Hampshire. Throughout the year, there are Irish bands that come. We always dance with Cherish the Ladies, we’ve danced with Eileen Ivers, we’ve danced with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

For more information on upcoming performances, visit stillsonirishdance.com or follow Stillson School of Irish Dance on Facebook and Instagram.

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