The Rhythm Within: An Evening with Nic Gareiss

Solo Square Dance is a one-person dance concert created and performed by Nic Gareiss commemorating the 1935 Dance Halls Act which banned Irish citizens from dancing in homes. Ninety years later, this 60-minute show combines movement, speaking, and song inspired by this and other such movement prohibitions, including the dancing ban in Pound, Virginia (only lifted in 1999!) which required that dancing permits not be granted “to anyone who is not a proper person, nor to anyone without good moral character.”  Set in the round at Tillers, Solo Square Dance engages traditional and original step dance movement from Ireland, Canada, and Appalachia to think about the power of rural do-it-yourself arts in public/private life, probing the subversive power of dancing bodies. The show begs the question: in light of its historic bans, can dance (continue to) be a means of transgression, liberation, and social transformation for our times?

Photo credit: Simon Alleyne