Air Bhioran a Dhol a Dhannsa: Keening to Get Up and Dance
Baile nan Gàidheal | Highland Village Book Launch
Cape Breton Gaelic Step-dancing
2 PM – 4 PM
December 3rd
Please join us at Baile nan Gàidheal | Highland Village, Iona, Sunday afternoon on December 3rd to launch and celebrate Gaelic Cape Breton Step Dancing, researched and written by John Gibson, author of Old and New World Highland Bagpiping and Traditional Highland Bagpiping 1745 -1945. This long-awaited book, supported by a Guggenheim research grant, extensively delves into the history of step-dancing as a disappearing dance form in Gaelic-speaking Scotland and its ongoing popularity in eastern Nova Scotia, as it is accompanied by the Gaelic music of Antigonish and Cape Breton.With the massive outflow of Highland emigration in the 18th and 19th centuries step-dancing has been a notoriously difficult subject of academic exploration in its place of origin. Gibson’s fieldwork has extensively derived its substance from the Gaelic language itself through Gaelic song, manuscripts and narrative gleaned from both Highland and Nova Scotia sources, combined with interviews and historical reference to dance in Gaelic Scotland and Nova Scotia.
The afternoon program will feature readings by the author, demonstration step-dancing to the piping and fiddle playing of Mabou musician Kenneth MacKenzie, along with Gaelic-singing and a fine srùbag of tea and oatcakes.
Admission is free. All ages welcome.