Kevin Doyle Master Class: Experience the Old Traditional Style of Step Dance

Join Dance Project for a class with guest artist Kevin Doyle as a part of the NC Folk Festival!

Come and explore the beat within you with some close-to-the -ground rhythms of Irish step dance. You will learn some steps of the jigs and hornpipe that Kevin’s mother Margaret brought to this country from County Roscommon in the 1930’s. We will also discuss the major influence Irish step dance had on the evolution of dance especially on American Tap Dance. Wear comfortable clothing with leather or hard rubber soled shoes or dance sneakers. Lots of FUN should be expected!

This class will occur in Studio 323 on the 3rd floor of the Greensboro Cultural Center.

Ages 13+. Intermediate Level.

$18 Class Fee & $5 Observation Fee.

For more information about Kevin Doyle:

With six dancing decades under his feet, Kevin Doyle is a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, the highest honor awarded to a traditional artist in the U.S. Irish jigs and reels learned in childhood from his County Roscommon mother, along with American tap dance, showcase his magical repertoire of historic national styles. Kevin’s hornpipe, jigs, and reels have taken his performances from the West of Ireland to stages in the American West. He has danced, choreographed, and presented at Ireland’s Willie Clancy Week and stepped to the tunes of the historic Marine Band for St. Patrick’s Day as a guest of the Obama White House!

As a step dancer performing and winning championships in the era prior to the arrival of CCE in America, Kevin is a “dancing textbook,” conveying the steps and stories of New England regional Irish dance schools and teachers active in the period from the 1950s through the 1970s in his hometown of Providence, RI, the birthplace of George M. Cohan, “Father of the American Musical Theatre,” himself reared on Irish dance and who inspired Kevin’s pursuit of American tap. This theatrical energy has served Kevin well in multiple stints as dance director and principal dancer for WGBH Christmas Celtic Sojourn and St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn, among other productions.

Kevin continues to dance and teach as a spellbinding ambassador for the traditional arts and as a producer-performer whose show and ensemble Roscommon Soles explores these legacies with artists who have included 2013 NEA National Heritage Fellow, fiddler Seamus Connolly; All Ireland Champion fiddler Sheila Falls (Director of Gaelic Roots at Boston College); and All Ireland Champion piper Torrin Ryan. Other credits and collaborations include those with sean nós dancer Kieran Jordan, Brian Cunningham of Atlantic Steps, and the cast of Childsplay.