Rebecca McGowan
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2023-24 Calendar

 

Jan 7 guest artist: Kate Spanos Festival Style

Jan 8 - May 21 Winter/Spring Semester
Jan 15 no class
Jan 16 guest workshop: Kayla Pinzur
Jan 23 guest artist: Cara Wildman
Feb 13 no class
Feb 19-20 no class
Feb 27 guest workshop: Kayla Pinzur
Mar 9 St Pat’s Student Tour
Mar 18-19 no class
Apr 15-16 no class
May 20-21 Last Spring Classes

June 4 - 27 Summer session

 
 

Beginners

Old-Style Irish Step Dance for adults
Traditional Irish dance basics and beyond in an older, traditional style. Ranging from beautifully simple to intricate, these steps are danced low to the ground and feature rhythms that closely match the music. Learn the 3s and 7s and solo hardshoe jigs, reels, and hornpipes. In the last 20 minutes, we’ll also dance social sets/céilís with the continuing class! We will begin with a thorough warmup, focusing on developing fluidity and musicality, and enjoy great traditional Irish music.

All backgrounds welcome, no experience required. This class offers steps at varying difficulties.
Shoes: Flat, hard-soled shoes.
New beginner/continuing
Mondays 6:00 - 7:00 pm, St John’s Arlington


Irish Step Dance for adults
Traditional Irish dance from the basics for beginners and continuing dancers in a more contemporary, lifted style. Learn the 3s and 7s and solo soft shoe jigs, reels, and slip jigs. In the last 20 minutes, we’ll also dance social sets/céilís as well as older-style hard shoe repertoire with the intermediate class! We will begin with a thorough warmup, focusing on developing fluidity and musicality, and enjoy great traditional Irish music.

All backgrounds welcome, no experience required. This class offers steps at varying difficulties.
Shoes: ghillies or ballet shoes; and flat hard-soled shoes such as oxfords, or step dancing hard shoes.
New beginners/advanced beginner
Tuesdays 5:30 - 6:30 pm, First Church Cambridge

 

Step Dancing

Irish Step Dance for adults
Traditional Irish dance, covering a whole range of contemporary & older soft shoe, hard shoe, and solo set dances. In the first 20 minutes, we’ll dance old-style repertoire and sets/céilís with the beginner class.

Continuing for dancers with 2+ years of soft shoe experience and some hard shoe experience
Mondays 6:40 - 7:55 pm, St John’s Arlington

Intermediate
Tuesdays 6:10 - 7:30 pm, First Church Cambridge


Irish Step Dance Technique
workshop for adults (fast intermediate/advanced)
Traditional, contemporary-style Irish step dance, for dancers with extensive experience who are interested in finessing technique on a deeper level, finding more ease of movement, exploring musicality, and continuing to train as adults at a high level. Class covers challenging, athletic soft shoe and hard shoe material. We will begin with a thorough warmup and get a good workout through conditioning and technique drills.
Mondays 8:00 - 9:00 pm, St John’s Arlington


Lower-impact Irish Step Dance
for adults (intermediate/advanced)
A class for experienced step dancers who want a more gentle practice alongside plenty of challenge in the material! We’ll focus especially on older-style hard shoe repertoire that lends itself to being danced lower to the ground, solo sets, and social dances. As always, a thorough warmup, and in this class, a relaxed pace. Flat, hard-soled shoes recommended.
Tuesdays 7:40 - 8:40 pm, First Church Cambridge
Guest workshops with Kayla Pinzur (Jan 16 & Feb 27) and Cara Wildman (Jan 23) included in this class

 

Sean-nós Dancing

Lunchtime Sean-Nós Irish Dance for adults (continuing)
with Dan Accardi (button accordion)
A lunchtime sean-nós Irish dance break! Enjoy great traditional music and play with rhythms in your feet. We’ll play with basic steps to respond to the music and express the melody and phrases. Develop fluidity and fine-tune your ear, build steps and variations, and make them your own in a supportive atmosphere.

Open to dancers with some previous sean-nós, step, or other percussive dance experience, as well as musicians.
Mondays noon - 1:00 pm, Alton Street Dance Arlington

 
 

 Register

Winter/Spring 2024 tuition
$352 one weekly class
$575 two weekly classes
$650 three or more weekly classes

Tuition is non-refundable. Please make sure you are able to attend before registering.
I offer variable tuition rates if you cannot pay the regular cost, including for multiple classes. Professional artist rate available. Please write to mcgowanirishdance@gmail.com.

 

Guest Artist
Master Classes 2024

 

Kate Spanos
Festival Style Irish Dance

Sunday, January 7, 2024
10:00-11:30 am
Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center

Work on your control, strength, musicality, and stage presence with this special workshop in festival style Irish dance with Kate Spanos! The session will focus on the techniques that are typical of this style’s “slow” slip jig and set dances and you will learn some choreographies that put these techniques into practice.

Festival style Irish dance is from the Belfast area of Northern Ireland and was innovated by Patricia Mulholland (or "Miss Mulholland") in the 1930s to 1950s to draw the focus of Irish dance towards individual expression, with a focus on performance and musicality. Festival slip jigs and set dances are much slower than their feis style counterparts, and dancers pay particular attention to expressing "light and shade" in the music. Grace, elegance, and control are key features of festival style.


Kate Spanos is a dancer and dance scholar from the Washington, DC, area with a Ph.D. in dance and performance studies from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in traditional Irish dance performance from the University of Limerick (UL). She has been teaching Irish dance since 1999. She first learned festival style from Ruth McCalmot Long of the Royal Tara Dance Academy in Carrickfergus and Larne while studying at UL. She currently studies festival style with Lauren Smyth from County Down through the @laurensmythacademy. For more about Kate, visit www.thekatespanos.com.

 

Kayla Pinzur, PT, DPT
Strength & Conditioning for Irish Dancers: Knees

Tuesday, January 16
7:45-8:45 pm (included with registration in the Lower Impact class)
First Church Cambridge

Kayla Pinzur graduated from Northeastern University with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in May 2022. She has experience in a variety of setting, including outpatient orthopedics, cash-based physical therapy for dancers and circus artists, acute care, and inpatient rehabilitation. She currently is working at Bay State Physical Therapy in Central Square of Cambridge, MA, where she treats patients with a variety of orthopedic diagnoses and conditions. Her main clinical interest is treating performing artists with an extensive history as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher herself. She has a background in a variety of dance styles, ranging from ballet to contemporary to hip-hop, and is a part of the Artistic Athlete Health Collective - a group of health and wellness professional dedicated to creating an environment of prevention for artistic athletes of all backgrounds and levels. She values providing dancers in the community with the confidence and resources they need to appropriately prevent and rehabilitate from injuries, allowing them to achieve their goals and return to their passions.

 

Cara Wildman with Jake James
Cousins in Rhythm: Bodhrán and S​tep Dance Collaboration

Tuesday, January 23
7:30-8:45 pm (included with registration in the Lower Impact class)
First Church Cambridge

While bodhrán players and dancers both use rhythm to accompany Irish traditional music, we approach our accompaniment in different ways and have so much to learn from each other! This hands-on class will be split into two different sections:

In Part 1 we'll discuss different approaches to accompanying the tune, both from a bodhrán player's perspective (with Cara), and a dancer's perspective (with Rebecca). We'll also talk about how to make small adjustments to the patterns/rhythms we already know to better suit the melody and/or to use as variations.

In Part 2, we'll have a "rhythm swap," where we trade rhythms to see what could work from bodhrán to dance, and swap patterns from our Cousins in Rhythm that we might not have thought of otherwise. Melodies provided by the amazing Jake James. Don't miss this exciting collaboration!


Cara Wildman is a highly sought after bodhrán player at the cutting edge of the instrument's modern development. She credits a large part of her musicality to growing up playing western swing with her father in her hometown of Dorchester, Texas. She has toured with Joanie Madden, Oisin Mac Diarmada's Irish Christmas in America, Máiréad Nesbitt, and more. Cara was the 2021 All-Ireland Fleadh Fest champion and has a Masters in Irish Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick in Ireland.

 

Kayla Pinzur, PT, DPT
Strength & Conditioning for Irish Dancers: Feet & Ankles

Tuesday, February 27
7:45-8:45 pm (included with registration in the Lower Impact class)
First Church Cambridge

Kayla Pinzur graduated from Northeastern University with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in May 2022. She has experience in a variety of setting, including outpatient orthopedics, cash-based physical therapy for dancers and circus artists, acute care, and inpatient rehabilitation. She currently is working at Bay State Physical Therapy in Central Square of Cambridge, MA, where she treats patients with a variety of orthopedic diagnoses and conditions. Her main clinical interest is treating performing artists with an extensive history as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher herself. She has a background in a variety of dance styles, ranging from ballet to contemporary to hip-hop, and is a part of the Artistic Athlete Health Collective - a group of health and wellness professional dedicated to creating an environment of prevention for artistic athletes of all backgrounds and levels. She values providing dancers in the community with the confidence and resources they need to appropriately prevent and rehabilitate from injuries, allowing them to achieve their goals and return to their passions.

Register for Workshops

$25

Variable tuition rates offered if you cannot pay the regular cost. Please don’t hesitate to register and then write mcgowanirishdance@gmail.com.

Private Lessons

Are you interested in learning a specific dance? Practicing your technique? Getting supportive feedback to bring your dancing to the next level? I offer private and small group lessons.

Focus on technique, steps, improvisation — step dancing, old style steps, sean-nós dance. Approaches I love most include:
- working through tricky spots in steps by creating ease and efficiency in movement
- making improv accessible and less scary, and making the movements feel like your own
- honing musicality

Please email mcgowanirishdance@gmail.com with your interest. Lessons are $40/30 min or $65/50 min, plus studio rental, and are currently offered online and in person.

 

Locations

St John’s Arlington
74 Pleasant St., Arlington, MA
free street parking
near 67, 77, 350 bus

Alton Street Dance Arlington
348 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
free street parking
near 67, 77, 350 bus

First Church Cambridge
11 Garden St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
meter street parking
Harvard Square red line & buses

 

School of
Irish Dance

Classes & Registration

Student Information