New show, Deiseil: Dancing in Time, from musician Amy Geddes and dancer Alison Carlyle is a powerful exploration of stepdance and Scotland’s percussive dance tradition.
Although stepdance has been gradually reintegrating back into Scottish culture over the last 30 years, it’s still a bit of a mystery to many. Someone might jump up for a few steps at a session, or appear on stage for a set or two… but what is this dance? Where did it come from, and why did it go?
The show is a piece of theatre which explores these questions using a collage of fiddle, feet, Gaelic song and spoken word. Presented in the round to evoke the atmosphere of an old-style ceilidh house, it takes you inside the unique relationship between dancer and musician in a journey through centuries of living tradition. Deiseil (pronounced like jay-shal) is Gaelic for ready but also has an older meaning of sunwise or clockwise, and the show reflects on how history echoes into the present, and what goes around comes around again.
Alison and Amy have created the show with renowned theatre director Gerry Mulgrew, as well as musicians who have contributed audio recordings which blend seamlessly with the live music and dance. The relationship between the rhythms of stepdance and the cadence of Gaelic language, poetry and song shines through in puirt a beul (or mouth music) from Mary Ann Kennedy and Allan MacDonald. The sound of the feet is the focus for an immersive performance, sometimes joyful, sometimes deeply moving, which draws you in to this thought-provoking part of our heritage.
You can catch the show during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at theSpace @ Venue 45, 8th – 16th August (not 10th), 5.10pm with touring throughout Scotland being planned for next year.
Tickets: www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2025/deiseil-dancing-in-time
