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NewsPRESS RELEASE Maldon Meehan receives 2008 Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant Dancer Maldon Meehan was awarded a Neighborhood Arts grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). RACC is a Portland based arts organization whose mission is to integrate arts and culture in all aspects of community life. The Neighborhood Arts Grants (NAP) are projects grants that support RACC’s mission by presenting community events by local artists. Maldon Meehan is a Portland based artist who has been working in the area since 1994. Her medium is sean-nós dance, or old-style step dance. This dance form 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. It is the oldest form of Irish step dance and most likely the form that American tap and clogging draw their roots from. Maldon is the third place winner of the 2005 Comórtas Chóilín Sheáin Dharach, a sean-nós jig competition held annually in Ros Muc, Co. Galway and she has competed in the nationally televised 2005 Oireachtas in Cork city. Maldon Meehan also released the first ever instructional DVD of sean-nós dance. The funded project will include a performance of traditional Irish music and dance, an eight-week series of two classes, and a student recital all to be held in the gym at the Friendly House in NW Portland. The performance An Damsha: Traditional Irish Dance will feature dancer Maldon Meehan and musician Johnny Connolly and present traditional Irish music, song and dance and its historical journey. The show will include new chorography and performances of Irish dance, modern dance, sean-nós dance, Cape Breton step dance and American clogging. Maldon will be bringing fellow sean-nós dancers Kieran Jordan, Shannon Dunn and Alicia Guinn to perform in the show. All four sean-nós dancers have been involved in the dance community and traveled to Ireland to study with various sean-nós dancers. They all joined forces in the summer of 2007 at the ICONs festival in Boston and are excited to be working together again. This Neighborhood arts project will be completed over the next year. Stay tuned for more details. For more information contact Maldon Meehan at 503.206.9311. Keep your eye on this spot as we will be posting new news regularly. For past news and articles check out the Sean-nós Dance News Archives. |
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