Dance partners Ronan Regan and Maldon Meehan teach and perform Sean-nós dance along with Irish set dance, céilí dance and Cape Breton step dance. They offer performances, lectures, workshops, residencies and calling for traditional dances.

American audience may be familiar with Tap and clogging. Sean-nós dance is similar to these American forms of dance. It is the oldest form of Irish dance and most likely the form that the American traditions draw their roots.

Sean-nós, literally meaning old style, is a highly improvisational, low to the ground, rhythmic dance form in which the dancer is free to interpret the music. The dancer is the visual/ percussive expression of the musical tradition and musician and dancer are in conversation. Using hips and arms, the dancer beats rhythmic steps that are closely linked to the music and musician. Traditionally, a dancer danced solo on the hardwood of a half door or the round top of a barrel, as a result the steps are confined to a small space.

The Ronan and Maldon joined forces in 2004 and began touring and performing through Ireland and America.

Maldon Meehan

Maldon Meehan is a performer, teacher and scholar of Irish Sean-nós and set dance. Maldon holds a BA in Irish Studies/Theater Arts from The Evergreen State College and a MA in Ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick, Ireland. Maldon has over 18 years experience dancing, teaching and performing. She is a 2008 Regional Arts and Cultures grant recipient.

As a sean-nós dancer Maldon has appeared on the nationally televised 2005 Oireachtas at the Cork Opera House in Cork City (TG4) as well as on Connemara Community Radio and Raidió na Gaeltachta (RTÉ). Maldon placed 3rd in the 2005 Comórtas Chóilín Sheáin Dharach, a sean-nós jig competition held annually in Connemara. In 2005 Maldon and Ronan Regan released an instructional DVD of Sean-nós dance. Today the DVD has been sold in more than 17 countries.

Maldon has studied sean-nós dance with Róisín Ní Mhainín, Pádraig Ó hOibicín, Mulkerrin, Mairéad Casey, Pádraig and Gearóid Ó Dubhain. She has performed on stage with Johnny B Connolly, Dale Russ, Hanz Araki, Kevin Burke, Foghorn Stringband, Danu, Jackie Daily, Ronan Regan, Kieran Jordan, Shannon Dunne and Alicia Guinn.

Maldon has performed and or taught at the Boffin Arts Festival (Ireland), the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp (Washington), Aladdin Theater (Oregon), Irish Connections Festival (Massachusetts), Sean-nós Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and the Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College (Massachusetts).

Maldon is a founding member of Sean-nós Northwest, a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting dance, song and language in the Pacific Northwest. Maldon Meehan currently lives in Portland, Oregon where she teaches weekly classes, performs and tours nationally.
www.maldonmeehan.com

Ronan Regan

Ronan Regan is a musician and dancer from Poll na Ruama, Galway on the west coast of Ireland.  He is known for his weaving, lyrical fiddle style and his easy-going pace.  In addition to his musicianship, Ronan is also a sean-nós dancer and set dancer as well as an instructor of music and dance.  He wrote his thesis on the Leitrim style of music, specializing in the musical styles of Ben Lennon and Jim Connolly and completed his Masters in traditional music performance, with modules in sean-nós dance in University of Limerick 2005.

As a sean-nós dancer Ronan captures the heart, humour and subtlety of traditional music and dances percussively to the essence of the tune.  He has performed extensively at events such as the Cóilín Sheáin Dharach Festival, the Inish Bofin Arts Festival and in venues such as the National Concert Hall, the Cork Opera house and the Cutler Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston.

Described by many as a natural teacher with an infectious love of dance, Ronan has offered sean-nós dance workshops throughout Ireland and abroad and has provided tuition to all ages in educational centers’ such as the Clann Resource Centre, Galway and the Ark Cultural Centre for children, Dublin and the Glór center in Ennis.  He has also taught at numerous universities including University Limerick, University Washington, Seattle, The Evergreen State College, Olympia and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

In 2005, with Maldon Meehan he released an internationally acclaimed instructional DVD called ‘Dance Sean-Nós’.  Dance Sean-Nós has so far sold in 17 Countries across the world and features as course material for various university programmes both in Ireland and abroad.

In Spring 2006, as choreographer he won the RTE / Arts Council dance on the box award and choreographed the short film ‘Why the Irish dance that way’ which has appeared in many film festivals around Ireland and abroad.  It is scheduled to appear in the Dresden International Short Film Festival on the 10th of April and in the New York Museum of Modern Art on the 6th and 8th of June of this year at “Shortfest: Outstanding Films for International Festivals”.