About
Rebecca McGowan performs, choreographs, and teaches traditional Irish dance. With a strong foundation in traditional step dancing, her dancing also draws on the musicality of older-style and sean-nós dance, the grace of soft shoe, and the joy of American and Irish social dance and music traditions. Rebecca is Artistic Director of contemporary step dance company Rising Step, and performs with duet partner Jackie O’Riley and in Kieran Jordan Dance. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, in WGBH’s “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” and at numerous festivals in the Boston and Washington areas. Her work has been supported by a Catalysts residency at the Dance Complex, Somerville Artist Fellowships, the Boston Foundation, NEFA, and local cultural councils. She is a 2020 Finalist in Choreography from the Mass Cultural Council. As a child she began dancing with Clare Sullivan and later studied with Kieran Jordan and the Culkin School. Rebecca has been on the faculty of the Catskills Irish Arts Week, Pinewoods Camp, and CCE MAD Week, and directs a non-competitive step dancing school for all ages in the Boston area.
is a collaborative Irish step dance performance company based in Boston. Exuberant footwork, keen musicality, and original, playful choreography celebrate the joy and art of Irish dance.
Rising Step’s mission is to inspire creativity in contemporary Irish step dance through performance of original choreography rooted in the musicality of the tradition. By creating a forum for Irish dancers to further their craft, Rising Step is elevating Irish dance as a professional art form. Rising Step’s dynamic, multifaceted choreography showcases Irish dance’s potential as a medium of artistic expression.
a first-of-its-kind Visual Album of traditional Irish dance and music created together with Jackie O’Riley
Knitting together dance and music, visual imagery and song, light and shadow, Sound Shadows draws details into relief and shows the unseen. Against a backdrop of Americana music and ballad singing, our movements, songs, and narratives carry myriad histories. We want to open our audience to dimensions that otherwise pass by unnoticed. We combine our art forms to celebrate how they enrich our experience of the world: tapping feet give dimension to banjo melodies; shadow pictures bring old stories to life; songs infuse emotion into movement. These dimensions inspire us to look for the invisible presence of where we came from and how it informs where we are going.