Re-Jigged Festival 2019 - Cormac Begley and Kieran Jordan

October 26, 2019, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Jig - An Cat Is A Máthair
Schottische - Bill O Malley's
Polkas - Polka John /Camino Polka
These tunes can all be found on Cormac's self-titled solo CD.

I was asked to perform a piece with Cormac Begley for the Saturday evening gala concert at the 2019 Re-Jigged Festival. Having never worked together before, I suggested that we have an Open Rehearsal during the Saturday daytime festival, in order to brainstorm and improvise ideas, with students and others sitting in to witness the creative process. This is the structure we came up with, and our performance from the concert, just a few hours later.

I wanted to explore the "breathing" of the concertina bellows — which Cormac so brilliantly expresses — and how that reflects the breathing of the dancing body. We wanted to try a few different types of tunes, and pitches, and how to make my dance transitions continuous, as he took a moment to switch instruments. We also explored lots of call and response in terms of which one of us was leading the melody of the tune.

This was — needless to say! — so much fun. The one-hour Open Rehearsal was a great way to collaborate quickly but still thoughtfully, rather than trying to throw together a piece during sound check, which is, sadly, often the expectation for dancers and musicians performing together. I loved having feedback and energy from the students who were present as we experimented and created together for the first time.

Thank you Elizabeth MacDonald for facilitating this and Cormac for being willing to try it, and for your beautiful tunes!