Northwest dance leader Deirdre Abeid dies at 48

Deirdre Haran Abeid, first lady of Irish dance in the Inland Northwest, died Saturday at her home near Kettle Falls, Wash. She was 48.

Abeid started one of the most influential dance schools in the Inland Northwest in 1992 at her Rice-area home – in her husband, Simon’s, shop building.

The Haran School of Irish Dance studios in Kettle Falls and Spokane came later. Many of the school’s approximately 350 students over the years have performed around the region, as well as in Japan and Austria, as the Haran Dancers.

Abeid and her school have been “absolutely central and pivotal” to Irish dance in the region, according to 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.

She inspired interest in Irish culture, “which is really what it is about,” Alden said.

Another Celtic Nots founder, James Hunter, agreed: “More than anybody, she has brought the music to the region and to people’s lives. She certainly influenced us.”

“I don’t think that, until we met up with her and got involved in playing with dancers, that we really knew what the music was for,” Hunter said.

When the Haran Dancers performed throughout the Pacific Northwest, the shows were strictly for the audiences, sister Eithne Bullick said.

“It wasn’t about bringing any glory to herself or even the dancers,” Bullick said, noting Abeid kept no scrapbook of performances. “Once a show was over, it was done. It was on to the next thing.”

Friends and family said Abeid succumbed to cancer but nothing else. They described her as a person of strong faith, an “eternal optimist” with a strong sense of humor, a person who loved to tell stories.

Among her triumphs, they say, she brought people together whether she was directing a troupe of Irish step dancers at the Spokane Opera House, singing in her church choir or teaching a child to read. About 200 people came together a couple of weeks ago to encircle her house in the Rice area, south of Kettle Falls, and pray for her.

“She just loved to bring people together,” Bullick said. “Really, her life’s purpose was to bring people together to glorify God through music, through dance and through service – service to her students, service to the community.”

Many of Abeid’s students came from politically and religiously diverse families that might not otherwise have come into contact, and might not have gotten along, Bullick and others said.

Bullick and Abeid – known as Dooda because another sister couldn’t pronounce Deirdre – grew up as part of a large Irish Catholic family in San Francisco. Their mother emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, and taught them Irish culture.

As a child, Abeid excelled as a flutist and as a singer, and she began step-dancing at age 5, relatives said. As an adult, her strengths came to include teaching. She home-schooled her children and taught reading to anyone who needed help.

Then she earned her TCRG teaching certificate – Teasgicoir Choimisiuin Le Rinci Gaelacha – from the Dublin-based Irish Dance Commission, an Irish government organization with an equally difficult Gaelic name.

Before tackling the region, Abeid passed her love of music, dance and Irish culture to her children, who are now dance instructors and musicians themselves.

Daughter Caitlin runs the Haran dance school near Ninth and Perry in Spokane, and daughter Claire will be taking over the studio in Kettle Falls. Abeid’s son, Mellad, formed a Celtic band in Spokane, known as An Dóchas (Gaelic for “The Hope”).

“Her family totally came first, and she just kind of worked things around that,” Bullick said. “Her dance school began with her children, and her children’s friends said, ‘Oh, that looks like fun.’ ”

In addition to teaching, Abeid participated in several Woodland Theatre productions as an actress, singer, dancer and choreographer.

When she wasn’t teaching or performing, Abeid liked to work with her hands, family members said. They said she was a master gardener and took pleasure in cooking, knitting and sewing. She could upholster a couch or shear a sheep.

“They really are few and far between, the people who have that kind of energy and passion for life and what they do,” Hunter said.

A vigil will for Abeid will be held at Sacred Heart Church in Kettle Falls at 7 p.m. this evening. Her funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in the larger Immaculate Conception Church in Colville.