Date Posted: 06/ 2/04 4:49:25pm
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Founder of dance studios dies

06/02/2004

Associated Press

Deirdre Haran Abeid, who popularized Irish dance throughout the Inland Northwest, has died at her home near Kettle Falls, Wash., her family said.

She was 48 when she died of cancer on Saturday.

Abeid started a dance school in 1992 in her husband, Simon's, shop building at home.

That was later expanded to Haran School of Irish Dance studios in Kettle Falls and Spokane.

Many of the school's approximately 350 students over the years have performed around the Pacific Northwest, as well as in Japan and Austria, as the Haran Dancers.

Abeid was "absolutely central and pivotal" to Irish dance in the region, said Carlos Alden, one of the founding members of Spokane's Celtic Nots band.

"I think it's fair to say that if Deirdre hadn't started teaching Irish dancing, you would see a little bit of it here, but it would be largely a novelty," Alden said.

Abeid grew up in a large Irish Catholic family in San Francisco. Their mother emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, and taught them Irish culture.

Abeid began step-dancing at age 5, relatives said. She earned her TCRG - teaching certificate Teasgicoir Choimisiuin Le Rinci Gaelacha - from the Dublin-based Irish Dance Commission, an Irish government organization.