"When I was four, my grandmother gave me one year of Irish dancing in Newark, New Jersey. That planted the seed," shared Maureen O'Grady White, one of the founders of the O'Grady Quinlin Academy of Irish Dance. "I love to be around children, I love that you get to watch them mature and grow up."

In 1992, she combined her love for Irish dance and children by opening the Maureen O'Grady School of Irish Dance. One of her students, Colleen Schroeder, later became her business partner.

"My mom's maiden name was Quinlin," explained Schroeder. "I danced for Maureen and opened up my own school. Maureen and I got together and decided it would be better to team up, so then we merged the schools."

Since O'Grady White and Schroeder combined their Irish Dance schools in 2005, the O'Grady Quinlin Academy of Irish Dance has continued to grow, with various locations throughout the Lehigh Valley as well as New Jersey.

This past summer, the O'Grady Quinlin Academy celebrated the opening of a new facility in Easton.

"Our new Easton facility is an additional studio for O'Grady Quinlin. A wonderful friend of ours saw the passion, commitment and determination of the OGQ staff and students and had the means to provide this perfect new studio for us to grow both in size and competitively," said Erin Green, a certified Irish dance teacher with the Academy.

The passion for Irish dance is certainly what has united this group of teachers, parents and students into a close community. Barb Cousland, a parent of one of the Academy's students, described the values of the school: "They don't only teach Irish dance. It's also about giving back to the community. It's about life skills: nobody is going to hand anything to you. =Work hard, fight for it and believe in yourself."

Cousland went on to say, "It's so important and prevalent - there's a sense of belonging and welcoming. You don't have to be of Irish decent. We have all ethnicities and we love everybody."

The sense of community and family is perhaps what has encouraged former students to return as teachers.

"My personal experience with the O'Grady Quinlan Academy has been such an amazing one," Green said. "Having been a student myself of both Maureen and Colleen for the last 20 years, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to join this skilled team as soon as I was certified to be a teacher."

Valerie LeWonka, an assistant teacher, also shared her story.

"I started when I was 11 on the Quinlin side under Colleen Schroeder," she said. "When I started, she had just opened her studio. I saw a production at State Theatre, which was an Irish dance show. I thought it was so amazing and how they could perform such strenuous activity. My friend called me up and asked if I wanted to join, so we joined together."

LeWonka excelled over the years and later danced in the Championships in Ireland. Unfortunately for LeWonka, she experienced an injury in which she tore the ligaments in the arch of her foot. Although this ended her dancing days, that didn't stop her from still being involved with the school.

"I love helping out and I love the kids," she said. "It makes me happy."

In the future, LeWonka is hoping to become a certified teacher so that she can hold her own classes at the Academy.

The O'Grady Quinlin Academy staff encourages everyone to try Irish Dance. Although students of Irish dance typically start as early as 4 years of age, the O'Grady Quinlin Academy also holds classes for adults.

"The Irish dance world is like a secret subculture with many opportunities for everyone who participates, no matter what age or what level of a dancer you are," Green said.

For more information about the O'Grady Quinlin Academy of Irish Dance, visit their website at http://www. ogradyquinlan.com.