Irish Dancers Ready to Step Off For Belfast

Sheila Bremer's dancers gave their hard shoes a workout on one side of the Porthole Pub.

Then their soft shoes on the other.

Saturday's slip and hard-shoe jigs and soft-shoe reels will stand the worlds-bound dancers well as they take their intricate footwork to Belfast, Ireland, for the World Irish Dance Championships from the end of the month into the first week in April.

On St. Patrick's Day, dancers from Swampscott, Marblehead and Beverly entertained the crowds in Lynn on either side of the Porthole.

The Swampscott dancers were Sheila Bremer's twin daughters, Nicoletta and Julianna, 11, Mia Hopkins, 12, Billy Petrocelli, 12, and the Sweeney sisters, Salome and Natazza, 14 and 20.

From Marblehead was 10-year-old Ceire Rocco, and from Beverly was 9-year-old Ian Guimet.

The dancers from the Bremer School of Irish Dance in Salem knocked out swell rhythms and mirrored each others moves.

They danced together and alone.

Either way, together or alone, soft shoe or hard, they won the crowd over with their fancy costumes, upright posture and happy feet.