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Meet Ben Stone, Ave Maria student and Irish dancer. Watch »

DAVID ALBERS / Daily News

Ave Maria University sophomore Ben Stone, 20, is an accomplished Irish step dancer who has performed at the Naples Philharmonic and toured with his six siblings in a traveling step crew in high school.

DAVID ALBERS / Daily News

Ave Maria University sophomore Ben Stone, 20, teaches an Irish step dancing routine to 10-year-old Christian Carmack, center, and 12-year-old Louis Raiger during the after-school classes he teaches at Ave Maria Grammar and Preparatory School on Wednesday, April 2, 2008.

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It started when an Irish step dance judge told Ben Stone he had horrible flexibility during his performance.

Stone’s solution was to stretch his legs in a split for up to five minutes at a time. Over time, his muscles relaxed and expanded. His kicks reached higher. That was good news for his dance routine, but bad news for his cheek.

Fortunately, the time Stone kicked himself in the face he wasn’t wearing his dance shoes.

“I thought it was kind of cool,” Stone said. “I had never done that before.”

The saving grace for Stone’s face was that he was only wearing socks. His shoes, the kind he wears on a recent spring evening while practicing alone in an empty classroom at Ave Maria University, are black leather. The sole has a thick heel and front, like tap shoes, that are made from hard fiberglass. Stone, a 20-year-old who just finished his first year at the school, covered the worn fiberglass with shiny black duct tape, often peeling and replacing it.

His practices just keep him in shape. At 6 feet 2 inches and a lean 190 pounds with a shock of blond hair (tenor Michael Londra, who’s worked with him, calls Stone “annoyingly good looking”), he’s bigger than most Irish dancers. His routine is short bursts of activity followed by pacing and tapping his hands to the Irish music. He moves from one corner of the room to the other, skimming the floor like a waterbug. He can tell whether he’s off step by the sounds his shoes make. He works for 45 minutes before his body tells him enough for the evening.

He started dancing at 12. Back then, Riverdance was all the rage and his five sisters got hooked. Eventually, he and his younger brother were converted, too. Soon after came the Partridge family-like dance group and 12-hour weekly trips to dance classes, national and international competitions.

The seven siblings toured country clubs, corporate events and private parties along the West Coast, where they lived at the time. They called themselves “The Stepping Stones.”

Londra came to know the troupe when he needed local dancers for one of his shows.

“They were like the von Trapps of Irish dancing,” Londra wrote in an e-mail while on tour in Greece. “Blond, cute and talented!”

In time, Ben’s siblings stopped performing, but he has continued on and off. This year, he taught classes both at the university and the town’s K-12 prep school, and his skills have made him a minor celebrity on campus. In December, he danced when Londra sang at the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Stone likes the attention, said sister Melissa, a senior at Ave Maria. She echoed Londra’s assessment that his skills could enable her brother to perform full time.

“Ben could be a lead dancer in any touring show currently,” Londra said.

Soon it appears Ben will return to competitive dancing. He’s been in touch with a coach in Tampa. He has his sights on the world championships next year in Philadelphia.

Stone doesn’t expect his Irish dancing to be a career or even a long-term pursuit. But since he stopped competing and performing, dance has gnawed at him.

“I just never finished,” he said of his development of the discipline. “I could have done more. It’s just for the fun of it. I just want to keep going.”