After 25 years of inspiring countless local youth and adults, the Sarnia School of Irish Dance will be taking a proverbial bow May 7 with an extravaganza at the Imperial Theater that will feature a profusion of engaging singers, riveting musical performances as well as graceful traditional Celtic dancing.
The school, its instructors and its 30-plus pupils will be joined by local musicians, Highland dancers as well as special guest band Maggie’s Wake for its silver anniversary, in a performance entitled A Celtic Evening.
School administrator Mairin Ring was one of the founders of the dance group, which was created in April 1997 by a local Irish women’s group.
The purpose of forming the school was to teach traditional Irish dance with a focus more on form than on speed, Ring said, and to instill a genuine appreciation and love of the art of Irish dancing, which had seen a staggering rise in popularity following the international success of Riverdance in the mid-nineties.
Over the years, students from all backgrounds and ages have joined the school and have come to treasure not only the dancing, but the friendships formed at the school, the skills learned and the pride in performing at numerous venues across the county in traditional, hand – Embroidered colorful Irish costumes.
“I can’t believe it’s been 25 years – my daughter was six at the time and now she’s the instructor and she’s 31,” Ring said with a grin. “Over the years we’ve done performances all over the place – we’ve gone to seniors’ homes, Brigden Fair, we’ve done Canada Day quite a few times.
“The interesting thing is that very few of our dancers have Irish connections,” she added. “I think that Riverdance was a huge influence – a lot of cultures have their own dancers, like Polish dancers and Greek dancers. Ireland had those dancers too but they weren’t well known outside of Ireland. But Riverdance just blew it up. So over the years we’ve had dancers from all different backgrounds who were interested in taking Irish dance.”
As with many other performing arts organizations in Sarnia-Lambton and around the world, COVID hit the school hard, preventing the group from putting on any large-scale, in-person performances. Last summer, students recorded an outdoor video dance that was shot at Germain and Centennial Parks with the help of ground cameras and drones, which was posted on the school’s Facebook page.
Though the video was very well received, students still had a real hunger to put on an in-person performance over the past two years, Ring said. With A Celtic Evening, they can finally showcase their dance moves in front of friends, family and anyone else with an interest in up-tempo, absorbing dancing and toe-tapping, lively music.
“We have some dancers who have been with us for two and a half years but they’ve never performed in front of a live audience,” Ring said. “So we hope all of the dancers’ families and aunties and uncles come along, but we also hope – and we’ve often have a lot of people like this at past shows – we have people who come out just to enjoy it. Irish dance has a very wide appeal.”
Along with the dancers, other performers at the show will include vocalist Jim Lahey – coming all the way from his home in New Brunswick for a special guest appearance – fiddler extraordinaire Caitlin Mason and musician Gerry Moore.
“We also have the Highland Dancers joining us … and we have Maggie’s Wake – they used to be Rant Maggie Rant from Stratford/London, but they’ve re-jigged their lineup. They’re a wonderful group of professional musicians. And we have a bagpiper and a female singer as well,” Ring said.
“We’re calling it A Celtic evening, so it’s going to be all sorts of wonderful local entertainment.”
Tickets for the show are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and children under 12. Group four-packs are also available for $72. Tickets can be purchased at the Imperial Theater box office (168 Christina St. S.), at www.imperialtheatre.net or by phoning 519-332-6591.