arts & entertainment
SMC Celtic Knights step into new year
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Photo by Nick Briggs
The dancers split into pairs for another demonstration. From left to right: Mallory Norton, McKayla Kashner, Erin Noonan, Elisabeth Steward.
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After successful Church Street performance, Irish dance team plans future public events
By Andrew Dennett
A&E Editor
The St. Michael’s Celtic Knights Irish dance club kicked off this year with its first ever public performance on Church Street on Sept. 9.
Junior Erin Brady, co-president of the club, planned the exhibition, which was the first time the club had performed off-campus, she said.
“Julie (Griffin-Carty, co-president) and I have always wanted to dance on Church Street,” Brady said.
A selection of club members braved cool, rainy conditions to perform with students from the McNeish School of Irish Dance in Burlington.
Along with the younger dancers, the Celtic Knights performed traditional Irish reels and jigs in both large and small groups, backed with live music. The final routine was performed a capella, with some of the dancers wearing hard-soled shoes, which achieved a sonic effect similar to tap shoes.
The Celtic Knights have come a long way in their three-year lifespan, and the credentials of the founding members help explain this.
“(Griffin-Carty and I) both danced in high school, and we missed it a lot when we came here,” Brady said. “We didn’t have cars, so we couldn’t go off campus for lessons.”
To solve this problem, they founded the club at the start of the 2005-2006 academic year, Brady said.
The first informational meeting in 2005 drew 30 interested students, but the number of members declined once the club started up, Brady said.
“People decided, ‘Oh, this isn’t for me,’” she said.
By the end of last year, there were 20 core members who came to every practice, Brady said.
Junior Mallory Norton has been a full-time member from the beginning. Like Brady and Griffin-Carty, she danced for several years before coming to St. Michael’s and wanted to continue, she said.
Although Brady and Norton have years of dancing experience, other Celtic Knights joined the club as novices.
Sophomore Danielle Moore had not danced since kindergarten before joining the Celtic Knights last year, she said.
“Catie (Robertson, another club member) convinced me to go one day,” Moore said. “The second time I went, I really got into it.”
Sophomore Sarah Maslak also had no dancing experience before last year.
“I love Irish culture, and I’ve always wanted to do Irish dancing,” Maslak said. “I thought that it was too late for me to start doing it while I was at home, but Julie hounded me, so I joined.”
To account for differing skill levels, the club is split into two groups, with the more experienced dancers teaching the less experienced, Brady said. When the group practices for a show, members who do not want to perform can work on their steps during the first half of practice, she said.
“Most people in the club come with no dance experience, and they’ve improved a lot,” Norton said. “They keep coming back.”
The Celtic Knights perform traditional dances and contemporary numbers that Brady choreographs, she said.
“Making up dances is hard because there are so many dancers of different levels,” Brady said. “You have to think of what the stage is like and what people you have.”
Both types of dances have their merits, Norton said.
“Traditional dances are good to include, but choreography is a lot more fun,” she said.
The club has appeared at several on-campus events, and the favorite moment of many members was their performance at the Martin Luther King Jr. Society Talent Show last spring.
“There was such a good crowd, people got really excited,” Brady said.
Other members enjoyed the talent show because it gave them a chance to show their improvement.
“We were competing and pushing ourselves to do things we hadn’t done before,” Maslak said.
Moore also said she saw this performance as a capstone for the year’s work.
“All of the hard work paying off was pretty cool,” she said.
This year club members hope to put on more public shows, which are still in the early planning stages, Brady said. They may also hold fund-raisers, including a possible bake sale, because their yearly budget from the Student Association is $500, she said.
Among the club members, a common reason for their love of the Celtic Knights is the attitude of the group.
“If you join Celtic Knights, you’re not only going to have a blast and learn a lot of new things, you’re also going to meet a lot of good people,” Moore said. |
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