Stepping lively

Wu Dan, a Beijing Sport University graduate, does Irish step dancing in a Hong Kong competition in May.

"My Chinese students are always very passionate, diligent and extremely hardworking," she says. "they want to learn more, to get stronger and to understand this foreign dance better. I respect them for that a lot."

Wu majored in Chinese folk dancing at Beijing Sport University. So Irish step dance isn't a giant leap from her college studies.

In 2012, she became a teacher at Beijing Chenjinglun School, where her department's head showed her some Irish dance videos.

"My director said: 'This is beautiful. Maybe you can teach our students and put on a show'," Wu recalls.

"I love dancing and found this exotic folk dance interesting. It's very different from its Chinese equivalent. So I took the director's 'maybe' seriously."

Wu scoured dance studios. But the closest genre they taught was American tap dance, which is similar but involves more upper-body movements.

She met Cedro through the Irish embassy, soon after the instructor with a World Irish Dance Association teaching certification arrived in Beijing.

They met and practiced, and their small group grew. It attracted novices and veterans.

Wu started teaching her middle-schoolers trebles, reels and jigs.

She opened another extra-curricular basic Irish-dance course at Chenjinglun last year. The youngest students are third-graders from its elementary department.

"I hope to also let them feel the lively spirit of the Irish when teaching them how to dance," says Wu.