Siamsa le Cheile (2017 program)

Irish & Scottish Dance
Faith Petric Stage – Auditorium / 12:45 - 1:30

Síamsa le Cheíle

We are a (mostly) Irish and Scottish music and dance show, though our repertoire does also often include music and song of other Celtic cultures (Galicia, Wales, Brittany). Our typical show includes all of the following: modern and older style Irish step dance, Irish sean-nos dance and brush (broom) dance, Irish set dance, Irish team or ceili dance, Scottish country dance, Scottish Highland and National dance, Cape Breton step dance, singing in Welsh and Irish languages, and tunes from various parts of Ireland, Scotland, and other specific cultures including Orkney and Shetland Islands. As part of our show, we provide brief descriptions of the different cultures and eras represented in each performance to promote and help the audience understand the rich diversity of “Celtic” music and dance. We are longtime in-house performers at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, the Renaissance Fair in Gilroy, the Sacramento Highland Games, and various other Celtic Games. For SF Free Folk Festival, we would like to do what we call a “modern” gig which incorporates electrified instruments, amplification, and on or two modern fusion dance pieces into our typicallly “traditional” repertoire Our past performances have ranged between 45 minute to several hours, so we can be flexible in filling your time slot as needed.

We can also provide, with enough time to do our regular multi-celtic show, a short introduction to beginning Irish sean-nos or step dance to your audience to allow them to “dance along” in the auditence during instrumentals, as several members of the troupe also teach Irish or Scottish dance on a regular basis.