Yesterday was a down-time day, just doing some work and a bit of shopping. My latest purchase is an important one for me, though: a new cap.
A dinner of chicken tikka masala (thank you Supervalu) and basmati rice, and it was off to Éigse an Spidéil, a festival of music and dance in Spiddal [pronounced SPIH-dl) with Lillis, with whom, as he said, I "struck gold" culturally. Spidéil is a town along the coast of Galway, where Irish is spoken more often than not. The evening of dance was all introduced in Irish, and most people in the audience were speaking it as well. But the languages of music and dance need no translation.
First up were 4 dancers: a brother and sister team who looked to be about 13 or 14 years of age, and two guys who were likely in their early 30s. All four took turns doing sean nos (old-style) dancing with either hard or soft shoes. The hard shoes made the most amazing percussive sounds, with each dancer keeping exacting time with the button accordion player. And although I've seen dancing like this before, all four dancers were just amazing in their execution and a joy to watch.
Next came the cultural exchange part of the evening, when a flamenco dancer, a guitar player, and a singer came onto the stage and did their thing. All was well and good until the singer started to join in the dancing in the third or 4th song. That turned the heat up, and the passion of all three artists went into overdrive. It was quite a performance.
The Irish dancers and accordionist came back for a couple more dances, and then the crowd went into the lobby for drinks and a live session. Wish I'd have brought my bodhran with me.
I love that musicians can just bring their instruments around and assume--rightly so--that there will be others who have done the same thing, and just start playing. I'm sure they did some planning, but it all seems so organic--it's just what you do around here. It's been fun to just carry my bodhran around town on my way to a session the few times that I've done it thus far. There's music everywhere.
I'm feelin' more Irish already.
First up were 4 dancers: a brother and sister team who looked to be about 13 or 14 years of age, and two guys who were likely in their early 30s. All four took turns doing sean nos (old-style) dancing with either hard or soft shoes. The hard shoes made the most amazing percussive sounds, with each dancer keeping exacting time with the button accordion player. And although I've seen dancing like this before, all four dancers were just amazing in their execution and a joy to watch.
Next came the cultural exchange part of the evening, when a flamenco dancer, a guitar player, and a singer came onto the stage and did their thing. All was well and good until the singer started to join in the dancing in the third or 4th song. That turned the heat up, and the passion of all three artists went into overdrive. It was quite a performance.
The Irish dancers and accordionist came back for a couple more dances, and then the crowd went into the lobby for drinks and a live session. Wish I'd have brought my bodhran with me.
I love that musicians can just bring their instruments around and assume--rightly so--that there will be others who have done the same thing, and just start playing. I'm sure they did some planning, but it all seems so organic--it's just what you do around here. It's been fun to just carry my bodhran around town on my way to a session the few times that I've done it thus far. There's music everywhere.
you look great in the hat!
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