CULTURE Montreal dance meets Irish trad

Montreal dance company Zogma are set to present an exhilarating blend of Quebecois and Irish music and dance in their show ‘Sokalo – Atlantic Rhythms’, at The Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar on Wednesday, September 9 at 8pm.

A rhythmic journey through the streets of Montreal, Solako is produced by The Dock and Zogma Dance in Carrick-on-Shannon as part of its ten-year anniversary celebrations. The show celebrates reunions, the joy of shared memories with friends and the urban rhythms that modulate to life.

The Canadians will be collaborating with Irish dancers Caitlin Nic Gabhainn, Edwina Guckian and Liam Scanlon, as well as virtuoso harpist Laoise Kelly. Each of these celebrated performers has a unique style of their own fashioned out of the music, dance, people and landscapes in which they grew and indeed continue to grow in.  

The urban rhythms in ‘Sokalo’ meet and intermingle with the rural rhythms of traditional dance and music in Ireland to produce a magical result.

Zogma’s interest in Irish dance stems from the links between their form of percussive dance, and indeed Quebec folk dance, that specifically traces its roots back to traditional Irish and French-Canadian dancing.

Zogma is a professional percussive dance company that is re-defining the limits of percussive dance.  Inspired by the living tradition, they create contemporary work specifically focusing on Quebec’s heritage and cultural diversity, presenting a contemporary approach and a new aesthetic to Quebec’s folklore, merging dance, music and song into powerful rhythmic works.  They have been performing and touring nationally and internationally since 2001 and have six productions to their credit.