On March 9, Craig Ashurst, co-owner and co-director of the Ashurst Academy of Irish Dance, and several of his students gave a demonstration of traditional Irish dancing at C.H. Booth Library. The visit to 25 Main Street has become an annual event ahead of St Patrick’s Day.

Reels and jigs as well as other traditional forms of Irish dancing were featured. The morning was just one of five performances for the students that day.

Every seat in the room was taken and the presentation was extremely well liked by the audience with numerous bursts of spontaneous applause.

As part of the event, a few audience volunteers practiced a basic step in traditional Irish dancing with some guidance from some of the students.

The Ashurst Academy of Irish Dance is directed by former Riverdance and Lord of the Dance stars Craig Ashurst and Christina Dolzall-Ashurst of Newtown. Both were highly successful competitive dancers themselves, collectively holding many regional, national, and international titles.

Their dance academy regularly has students attend and win national and international competitions. Ashurst Academy students returned from the New England Regional Irish Dance Championships, also known as the “Oireachtas,” in Hartford in November, with World and National qualifying positions and numerous podium placements and medals.

Two Ashurst students — Trey Ruffles and Piper Noemand — qualified to compete in The World Irish Dance Championships, a/k/a the Olympics of Irish dance, in Glasgow, Scotland this month.