WILLIAMSTOWN — It was standing room only at the Store at Five Corners on Sunday as musicians played jigs, reels and hornpipes and young step dancers performed.

The concert and dance performance was in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. This is the third year the dancers have joined the assembly and it was their first of four events of the day.

Lily Touhey 10, from Scoil Rince Bréifne Ó Ruairc performs Irish Step Dancing at the Store at Five Corners in Williamstown on Sunday.

The musicians played tunes with names such as “Deirdre’s Fancy,” “Drowsy Maggie,” “I’ll Tell Me Ma,” “Irish Washerwoman,” “Munster Bacon” and “Rattlin’ Bog.”

The youngest dancers wore soft shoes and moved nearly noiselessly. Older dancers wore hard shoes and did their footwork on boards, punctuating their performances with their own percussion.

All wore crisp black, handmade costumes with red piping and red and gold embroidery.

Lily Touhey 10, from Scoil Rince Bréifne Ó Ruairc performs Irish Step Dancing at the Store at Five Corners in Williamstown on Sunday.

Some of those brandishing instruments were also wearing the black, red and gold embroidered costumes of Scoil Rince Breifne O Ruairc, an Irish dance school based in Pittsfield and founded by Jennifer O’Rourke.

The young musicians take part in the school’s fiddling group called Gaellica, a word play on Gaelic and Metallica, which is a favorite band among some of the young musicians.

Musicians make music for Scoil Rince Bréifne Ó Ruairc Irish Step Dancers at the Store at Five Corners in Williamstown on Sunday.

Their leader, Alicia Stevenson, counted off the dancers and worked with O’Rourke on the spot to determine tempos and musical introductions.

The dancers listened closely for their cues, and Jennie Darby, their instructor, counted off their beginnings as dancers stepped off in sequence following solos.

Dancers from Scoil Rince Bréifne Ó Ruairc perform Irish Step Dancing at the Store at Five Corners in Williamstown on Sunday.

While some of the dancers’ legs seemed to spring effortlessly, their upper bodies remained stiff and upright.

March is a busy month for this group.

“Yesterday, there was a parade in Albany. N.Y., and then there were three dinners that we danced at,” Darby said on Sunday. “To pull that off, we had to divide our group up. And today, this is our first one, and then we're going over to Dalton, and we're going to join the pub crawl, so like two today, and we're visiting four pubs.”

People applaud dancers from Scoil Rince Bréifne Ó Ruairc as they perform Irish Step Dancing at the Store at Five Corners in Williamstown on Sunday.

Darby teaches in order to keep alive an ancient tradition that was first passed along in Ireland by traveling masters.

“I'm passing along something that someone gave to me, to another generation,” she said. “And so I hope that they're kind of doing the same as I'm doing by sharing it with the audience.”

Darby doesn’t perform Irish step dance now.

“So what I feel when any one of my kids is dancing on the stage, is that I am dancing,” she said. “When they’re competing, I get really, really anxious.”

Darby said the trickiest element for beginners to learn may be shifting weight from foot to foot.

She grew up in the Berkshires and began dancing at the age of 11 or 12 at the Irish American Club in Cheshire after her mother, Paula O’Rourke, noticed an ad in the newspaper.

In 2021, Darby’s school became part of the Irish American Club. Her mother sewed 60 uniforms for Darby’s students, including four unique costumes for solo competition.

Darby teaches both adults and children, with the oldest active dancers in their 70s.

Carol Stein Payne of Williamstown praised the performance.

“These kids are the coolest,” she said. “They’re adorable.”

Karen Charbonneau, president of the Store at Five Corners Stewardship Association, which owns the building, said she was delighted this event could take place, given that the store has been closed since Nov. 7 following issues with water.

Now restaurateurs Sean and Colleen Taylor are putting on the finishing touches to open this spring.

Charbonneau said the venue has been a meeting place since the Revolutionary War, first as a mustering point and stage coach stop, later as a tavern, post office and general store.

Charbonneau said she’s looking forward to holding a monthly dinner for women on the fourth Thursday of the month.

She said during the closure, people have missed the store.

She said she feels like the Taylors are "going to be a good fit for the store and for the community."