Erin go Bronx

An all black-and-Latino school in the Bronx has gone crazy over Irish dancing, reports the New York Times.

Taja Garnett’s parents are from Belize, but her nickname is “Irish girl.”

Ever since Taja, 10, joined the Keltic Dreams, the Irish dance troupe that is the unlikely pride of her Bronx elementary school, she has been so consumed by high kicks, heel clicks and treble hop backs that she practices “on the street, at the bus stop, sometimes at the train station, in the living room, on the bus when I’m standing up and there’s no seats.”

Oh, and also in class. In class? That’s right, with her fingers, she explained, demonstrating the way her index finger acts as the left foot and her middle finger as the right.

Caroline Duggan, a Dubliner hired as a teacher, showed students a few steps when they asked about her Riverdance poster. They loved it.

This is multiculturalism without manipulation, writes Erin O’Connor.

. . . genuine cultural crossover really is the spice of life, a source of endless delight and, quite often, the mechanism of hope.

The Keltic Dreams traveled to Ireland to perform — and to hunt for chocolate leprechauns in their teacher’s mother’s garden.