 |
| Back row: Stephanie, Owen, Mackenzie, Camryn and Emma. Front row: Julia, Angela, Katelyn and Jayne |
 |
| Stephanie, Emma, Camryn, Mackenzie, Katelyn and Jayne |
 |
| In character (but not all in costume) for their skit; see text below |
 |
| In character for their skit/dance (see text below) |
 |
| Camryn and Jayne during their skit "The Feis" |
 |
| Stephanie, Camryn and Mackenzie backstage during the Sunset and Stars Gala |
Celtfest is a Celtic summer camp in Nanaimo that has classes in all the celtic arts (piping, drumming, singing, fiddling, pennywhistle, bodhran, celtic knotwork, and highland, Irish, Cape Breton, and Sean Nos dancing). 8 NPIDA dancers attended the 2011 camp: Mackenzie and Camryn C, Jayne and Katelyn D, Julia and Angela R, Emma B, and Stephanie M. Stephanie was also part of the CeltFest executive planning team. The Irish dance program was taught by Rose Fearon ADCRG, TCRG from the BFOC school. Owen Barrington (Senior Mens World Champion in 2008 and Riverdance troupe member) was there to teach the show class.
Many thanks to Stephanie who submitted the following review of CeltFest:
Each day we started out with an hour of pilates and yoga specifically taught with Irish/Highland dance in mind. We worked on stretches that helped with our turn out, developing our arches, flexibility, core, and proper warm-up techniques. That was followed by two hour-long blocks of dancing. Some days one of the blocks was something other than Irish dance. We did a block of Sean Nos dancing, which is really old style Irish dancing and a block of Gaelic language where we learned how to count to 10 and some basic greetings.
The show class in the afternoon was taught by Owen. He taught us steps from Riverdance and made up a little treble reel number for us. The Open championship dancers at the camp got to perform it at the big gala concert at the end of the week. The last block of the day was Ceili dancing. Each day was a different style. We did Scottish ceili, Irish ceili, and Scottish country dancing.
There were camp ceilis every night which brought together all the teachers and students for music, dancing, and fun!! Tuesday night was the "Wacky Jig and Hornpipe" Contest. The NPIDA entry was "The Feis." It was inspired by an NPIDA Ceili number from a few years ago where, during the course of one dance, everything and anything that goes wrong at a feis, goes wrong. Mackenzie and Katelyn represented the "First Feisers". Katelyn did a perfect beginner slip jig, while Mackenzie did her own thing, following Katelyn around the stage trying to copy her steps. Camryn, Emma, and Jayne were the Championship dancers. Emma was the desperate dancer with the "Pick Me" sign pinned under the front of her skirt, Camryn was the overly made-up pushy dancer, and Jane was the "I am going to puke everywhere" dancer.
The whole thing was really funny! The girls did an amazing job! Jane's wig even went flying off as she was dramatically puking into a garbage can. They ended up winning the "Feis-tastic" award and they won the contest!
I took 4 pages of notes during the week with drills and techniques that I thought were really important to share with everyone else. I hope to share them with Nora and Courtney so that we can possibly incorporate them into our classes.
Thursday night was the Sunset and Stars Gala at the theater in town. It is mainly a chance for the faculty, who are all professional performers and musicians, to perform. Some dancers were selected from each of the dance programs to put on a little number during the last number. Camryn, Mackenzie, and Stephanie were part of the Irish Dance troupe lead by Owen.
I think everyone had a great time, despite being overly tired and sore by the end of the week. We climbed about a million stairs by the end of the week, which almost seemed like a class itself! The gym where the dancing was held was at the bottom of campus. The cafeteria and the rest of the classes were in the buildings farther up campus. It was a good thing that it wasn't overly hot, or I'm sure we would have passed out on climb on the way to lunch everyday!
Thank you Stephanie! Thanks also to Nicole, Andrea and Stephanie for the photos above. Click here for more details about CeltFest 2011:
www.celtfest.ca
