Workshop Traditional Irish Dance

The Italian Fusion Festival is happy to introduce the Traditional Irish Dance Workshop lead by Alan McGreek.

The Trad Rocks Ceili is an extremely fun, energised and interactive workshop on the group form of Irish (and Scottish) traditional dancing, popularly known as Ceili Dancing. With the help of your ceili caller ‘An Fhear An Ti’ (- Irish for ‘Man of the House’) you will learn all about how this form of dancing, which surprisingly is only about 100 years old, went from country house to Ceili house! With the meteoric rise of Riverdance, we’ll see how this traditional art has adapted to find its place in a contemporary world! Of course it wouldn’t be Irish dancing if this workshop was all talk so we have adapted a few Irish dancing ‘sets’ to make them easy and fun for anyone of any age or culture to learn in an informal environment. You’ll find out all about the counting the beats and finding your steps to match the music which will be performed live for you while you ‘step it out’! You’ll need all the vitality you can muster for this exciting and cheerful lesson in music and dance.

AN FHEAR AN TI (Man of the House – the caller of the steps)

The Fhear an Ti for the workshop is Alan Mac. Essentially, he is the man in the middle and he helps you learn the beats and steps of the dances. Alan is a popular musician in the Irish Traditional music circuit of the Dublin area and has be also calling ceilis for over 10 years. His experience in calling the steps of the dance has enabled him to adapt and construct a workshop suitable for all ages and backgrounds, and his knowledge of the traditional Irish music scene makes this workshop both interactive and informative.