The tappity-tap-tap-click of dance shoes stomping out an Irish jig echoed throughout the Radisson Hotel on Saturday.
It was the 2009 New Mexico State Championships, and about 260 dancers from across the United States competed for prestige and prizes.
Beverly Coleman, who teaches traditional Irish step dancing at the Lloyd Shaw Dance Center, said the festival kicks off the celebration of Irish heritage surrounding St. Patrick's Day.
"It's called a feis, and it's a Gaelic word for festival," Coleman said. "We get together and have dance competitions, and we usually have food vendors there. Sometimes an event like this is in conjunction with other Irish games and things like the Celtic festival they have here in May."
They also have Irish competition and the caber toss, an event where men launch large poles across a patch of grass to prove their strength. But the state championships aren't the only gig in town celebrating the upcoming holiday.
Many festivities, such as parades and live music, are scheduled every weekend.
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On Saturday, the Irish Heritage Center of New Mexico will hold its annual fundraiser at the Chamisa Hills Country Club in Rio Rancho.
Kate Nash, project coordinator for the event and president of the Albuquerque's Irish American Society, said she was thrilled when Michael Patrick Gallagher agreed to perform at the fundraiser.
Nash said Gallagher has been the lead dancer for Riverdance company and was on "Dancing With the Stars" last year.
Nash said money from the fundraiser will help create a center for Albuquerque's Celtic community.
"We'll have some pipers, and we're going to have a silent auction, and the idea is that the whole purpose is building a cultural center, a Celtic cultural center promoting Irish heritage and culture in New Mexico," Nash said. "Ultimately, from my point of view, my passion is to have a center for women, children and family and music and dance and provide cultural awareness much like the Hispanic Cultural center, but only for the Celtic community."
Nash said Gallagher will also be in town to check on the dance school he recently started in Albuquerque with his partner Chris Crorgy.
Crorgy said the school was an expansion of the Tir Conaill Academy of Irish Dance spread throughout the northern part of the United States. The school opened Jan. 10, he said. The school has 25 students.
"Our school is originally from Donegal, and that's in the north of Ireland," he said.
Coleman said the festivities might attract people who are interested in taking Irish dance lessons. Classes cost about $35 a month, she said.
"For the tuition that our dancers pay, we guarantee three classes a month, which is usually every
Saturday that we have classes," Coleman said. "Sometimes, things get in the way like Christmas, and families are better off spending their time with family rather than dancing, so we cancel class on Christmas Saturday or Easter. Things like that."
Coleman said her daughter loved Irish dancing so much she went from kicking a jig across the floor at state competitions to getting her teaching certificate in Irish dancing. She now teaches children at McTeggart School of Irish Dance in Albuquerque, which opened in 1957 and is overseen by Anne Hall.
"Anne has been covering her mother's classes over the past year and a half because her mother is somewhere near the age of 80 and had a stroke and has been recovering ever since," Coleman said. "But you figure if she was dancing into her 80s, Irish dance can't be too bad for you."
