December 4, 2024 • 12 mins
We spoke with Warner Theatre's Cian Walsh about “A Celtic Christmas by A Taste of Ireland”
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Key and Walsh. He is a dancer
in the show A Celtic Christmas by A Taste of Ireland.
It's Sunday, December eighth at the Warner Theater in Torrington.
Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm great. I cannot wait to hear about this show.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to telling you all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So do you have a background in Irish dancing?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I do, yes.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I grew up started Irish dancing when I was about
four or five years old. My mom and dad actually
taught me Irish dancing. They have their own Irish dancing schools.
So I was lucky in that sense that it's kind
of in the blood in the family. So I was
kind of just thrown into the Irish dancing class as
a kid and then just grew to love it. It's
(00:48):
been everything. It's been all my life really at home,
it's part of the family.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So yeah, it's really nice that I can.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Make my family proud and be spreading that kind of
Irish culture, the love for Irish dancing around the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Where are you from in Ireland?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So I'm from Cork in Ireland, so right down the south.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So how old are you now? If you don't mind
my asking? Since you started when I'm four.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm twenty five years old now, so I've been dancing
just over twenty years, which is crazy to think.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
You're still so young. You're still such a baby. Yeah,
so tell me. There is a story associated with the
show that's coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
There is there is.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So it's basically a love story that we try to
tell through Irish music and Irish dance about a poor
boy from Tyrone in Ireland that meets a wealthy girl
and they fall in love. But a girl's family doesn't
approve of the boy, so they send him away to
(01:57):
America and without telling them, of telling the girl and
then she's wondering why he's left, and I said anything,
and she goes to look for him in America and
she finds him at a masquerat ball and then they
get married and fall in love and live happily ever after.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh isn't that wonderful?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah? Yeah, it's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So is there speaking or is this all told through dance?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So it's all told through Irish dancing, Irish music, singing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There's not much speaking. Any speaking that.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Happens is just us going off the cost During the show,
we might have a little bit of a bit of
banter with the crowd, a little bit of cracking some
numbers where well, especially there's a boy's number where we're
doing it a cappella and it's usually myself that's we
try and jump up and see how many clicks I
can hit with my heel and the crowd. We start
(02:49):
off at one and sometimes we go up to four
or five, six. It's sometimes the crowd are shouting up
to do more. So we always love having that kind
of banter back and forth with the crowd. So it's
mostly told through the Irish music and dance and singing,
but now we definitely go off the coff sometimes and
have a little bit of fun.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So are there any solos singing or is it everybody
group singing all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So we actually have we have one singer in the
show and two musicians, so it usually transitions between Irish
dancing numbers and then it'll transition into the singer coming
out and singing with the musicians and kind of back
and forth that way. So we do have a singer
that will sing in the show throughout.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, I've seen Lord of the Dance and River Dance
and gotten goosebumps the chills. It's so exciting, it's beautiful,
it's absolutely breathtaking. What's it like being at the Warner
Theater in Torrington.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
What's really special is that everything that happens and you
see and you hear on stage is live. None of
it is tracked. We have Mike's at the front of
the stage, we have Mike's on our lead answers are
on their feet, on their shoes. So what's really special
is just everything it's being it's being so authentic that
(04:08):
everything you hear from out front as an audience member
is coming from the stage. It's coming from our shoes
and our feet. So it's really nice, especially for the
dancers themselves, to you know, you have to be on
your game every night. You have to be hitting, hitting
all the beats. There's there's no hiding behind the tap
track or anything, which is it's really special for us
(04:30):
as well. It makes us better dancers. It keeps us,
you know, pushing to put on better shows every night,
make our feet go faster, make more beats in the
in the second so it's really special to to have
a live show something so difficult and so intense, to
just have it as a live show and really give
(04:53):
the audience that authentic kind of in the moment experience.
We will do the show for two hours. We'll we'll
jump in the e bat will warm up, a cool down,
we'll do everything that we need or use our massage,
guns and phone rollers, and then we'll jump on the
bus in the morning after we could travel you know,
four or five, six, seven hours to the next location.
So you can imagine we're sitting on that bus and
(05:15):
our legs aren't feeling great, but we That's where the
eating healthy, drinking lots of water, hydration, all that stuff
that comes with it is really really key because if
you don't, you will definitely feel it, get the injuries,
and then then yeah, that's the last thing you want.
So we definitely look after ourselves well, but we also
(05:35):
we also treat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
As well good. I'm so glad, you know, I'm teasing
really because I know that when I get excited like that,
I'm like, I want something good to eat on that girl.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So tell me if you could without giving everything away
what are the names of some of the Irish tunes
or the ballads or the carrols that we'll be able
to hear that day.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So you'll hear we have we have a kind of
a fun Carol's number where the lads will come out
and they'll sing, you know, a couple of Irish carols
like a Silent Night and Rudolph the Red Nose right here.
But we'll put a little spin on it to make
it fun for the audience and just make a couple
of jokes in there and stuff, and then you'll hear
(06:16):
your Christmas in Calenie. There's a Galway Girl. There's different
Christmas songs incorporated into it as well, which really gets
the audience in that kind of festive spirit, especially we're
getting close to the Christmas now, a lot of Irish jigs,
Irish reels which are really fast paced. You know, we're going,
(06:39):
we're feeder going just as fast as the music is going.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So it's it's a.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Really special show that it kind of incorporates, you know,
that Irish culture. We're able to kind of spread that
I love for Irish music and Irish dands here in
America and where it's like it's so appreciated here. Whether
the audience or anyone that comes to see the show
has affiliation into Ireland, they might have ancestry in Ireland,
and they might also have no affiliation to Ireland, but
(07:05):
they just want to learn, they want to experience.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
What the music and the dance was like.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So it's really nice in that sense. And again as
we get close to the Christmas, you'll you'll have the
audience singing along to all the Christmas songs. So yeah,
it's a really really special show to incorporate the Irish
music and also that's fest of that's festive cheer as
we get close to the Christmas.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
What do you hope people take away from seeing the show.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I would love for people to come away to really
understand and try to understand and experience because Irish dancing
and Irish music is really at the heart of Ireland,
of our culture. So I know people might have the
different stereotypes about Ireland as you probably know, but the
(07:51):
Irish music and Irish dance is really at the heart
of it. So I would love for people to come
away from it really just getting an understand thing of
the of the music and the dance and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, coming away.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
We have all sorts of age groups that will come
to the show that we might You'll have little kids
up to grandparents and stuff. So it's really nice for
we have some kids that will come in and they
might say, oh, I've been doing tap dance. It might
be Irish dancer, might be tap dance, might be ballet,
and so it's really nice to kind of spread spread
that to even the younger generation that some might come
(08:27):
see the show and say, oh, you know what, I'm
going to start Irish ancing. I'm gonna, you know, I
love what I saw tonight, though, I'm gonna, you know,
get myself into that world, which is really special.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
It would be I love the costumes and the headdresses
that the women wear.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, it's I'm lucky in that sense that the
boys don't have too much to do and when when
it comes to getting ready for the show and getting
her hair, makeup and costume sorted. But the the girls
in the show really yeah, it's it's it's breathtaking what
they can and what they can do and the hair
(09:02):
and the makeup and the costumes and yeah, it's it's
really wonderful that we can also where we can show
Irish dancing and how beautiful it is, but we can
also you know, you'll see how beautiful and stunning everybody
looks on stage as well, with the costumes and the
lighting and we have the smoke machine and just everything
(09:25):
mixed together. It just it looks really really stunning from
our front.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You must feel so proud to be on stage with
the people from your country expressing your culture throughout the world.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. We have quite we have a large
cast of about seventeen eighteen of us. You know, we
have dancers, musicians, singers, are lighting and sound technicians, so
it's really beautiful. We have i'd say about maybe seventy
percent of us are Irish, and then we have Australian, Australians, Americans,
(10:00):
Canadians English. So it's a really special, really proud moment
for especially all of the Irish to be able to
be spreading that love for Irish dancing, Irish music in
America where it's it's so appreciated. The crowds are I've
never seen crowds like it.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I've been. I've done tours in.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Australia and New Zealand, England, and I've never seen anything
like it over here in America, and they just love it.
They're up on their feet before we even finish clapping,
singing dance on the long So it's a really proud
moment for me, for my family, for for everybody else
and their families in the show. Yeah, it's really it's
really special.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So Ken, how will someone know who you are in
the show?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
We have a program which will have.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We're having a program online which people can can check
out and they can see the different cast members, or
they can go on our Instagram page.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It's a taste of.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Ireland and they will see all of the cast, you know,
our different videos of whether it's dancing, whether it's you
know us doing Q and as us just having a
little a little bit of fun and explaining what we
get up to during the day, not even when it's
not in the show, just on days off and different
things like that. So I'm one of the lead dancers
(11:25):
in the show as well, so you see me come
out doing different solo pieces in front of the cast
behind me with the other lead female girl, so you
you definitely spot me coming out and running out, flying
around doing high kicks and jumping up as high as
(11:45):
I can go.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So that's how I hope you'd spot me.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I'm speaking with Kean Walsh. He's a dancer in the
show at Celtic Christmas by a Taste of Ireland. It's
at the Warner Theater on Sunday, December eighth. Get your
tickets at Warner Theater. Dad or Ken, thank you so
much for being here today, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I loved it.
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Key and Walsh. He is a dancer
in the show A Celtic Christmas by A Taste of Ireland.
It's Sunday, December eighth at the Warner Theater in Torrington.
Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm great. I cannot wait to hear about this show.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to telling you all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So do you have a background in Irish dancing?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I do, yes.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I grew up started Irish dancing when I was about
four or five years old. My mom and dad actually
taught me Irish dancing. They have their own Irish dancing schools.
So I was lucky in that sense that it's kind
of in the blood in the family. So I was
kind of just thrown into the Irish dancing class as
a kid and then just grew to love it. It's
(00:48):
been everything. It's been all my life really at home,
it's part of the family.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So yeah, it's really nice that I can.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Make my family proud and be spreading that kind of
Irish culture, the love for Irish dancing around the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Where are you from in Ireland?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So I'm from Cork in Ireland, so right down the south.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So how old are you now? If you don't mind
my asking? Since you started when I'm four.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm twenty five years old now, so I've been dancing
just over twenty years, which is crazy to think.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
You're still so young. You're still such a baby. Yeah,
so tell me. There is a story associated with the
show that's coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
There is there is.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So it's basically a love story that we try to
tell through Irish music and Irish dance about a poor
boy from Tyrone in Ireland that meets a wealthy girl
and they fall in love. But a girl's family doesn't
approve of the boy, so they send him away to
(01:57):
America and without telling them, of telling the girl and
then she's wondering why he's left, and I said anything,
and she goes to look for him in America and
she finds him at a masquerat ball and then they
get married and fall in love and live happily ever after.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh isn't that wonderful?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah? Yeah, it's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So is there speaking or is this all told through dance?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So it's all told through Irish dancing, Irish music, singing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There's not much speaking. Any speaking that.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Happens is just us going off the cost During the show,
we might have a little bit of a bit of
banter with the crowd, a little bit of cracking some
numbers where well, especially there's a boy's number where we're
doing it a cappella and it's usually myself that's we
try and jump up and see how many clicks I
can hit with my heel and the crowd. We start
(02:49):
off at one and sometimes we go up to four
or five, six. It's sometimes the crowd are shouting up
to do more. So we always love having that kind
of banter back and forth with the crowd. So it's
mostly told through the Irish music and dance and singing,
but now we definitely go off the coff sometimes and
have a little bit of fun.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So are there any solos singing or is it everybody
group singing all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So we actually have we have one singer in the
show and two musicians, so it usually transitions between Irish
dancing numbers and then it'll transition into the singer coming
out and singing with the musicians and kind of back
and forth that way. So we do have a singer
that will sing in the show throughout.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, I've seen Lord of the Dance and River Dance
and gotten goosebumps the chills. It's so exciting, it's beautiful,
it's absolutely breathtaking. What's it like being at the Warner
Theater in Torrington.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
What's really special is that everything that happens and you
see and you hear on stage is live. None of
it is tracked. We have Mike's at the front of
the stage, we have Mike's on our lead answers are
on their feet, on their shoes. So what's really special
is just everything it's being it's being so authentic that
(04:08):
everything you hear from out front as an audience member
is coming from the stage. It's coming from our shoes
and our feet. So it's really nice, especially for the
dancers themselves, to you know, you have to be on
your game every night. You have to be hitting, hitting
all the beats. There's there's no hiding behind the tap
track or anything, which is it's really special for us
(04:30):
as well. It makes us better dancers. It keeps us,
you know, pushing to put on better shows every night,
make our feet go faster, make more beats in the
in the second so it's really special to to have
a live show something so difficult and so intense, to
just have it as a live show and really give
(04:53):
the audience that authentic kind of in the moment experience.
We will do the show for two hours. We'll we'll
jump in the e bat will warm up, a cool down,
we'll do everything that we need or use our massage,
guns and phone rollers, and then we'll jump on the
bus in the morning after we could travel you know,
four or five, six, seven hours to the next location.
So you can imagine we're sitting on that bus and
(05:15):
our legs aren't feeling great, but we That's where the
eating healthy, drinking lots of water, hydration, all that stuff
that comes with it is really really key because if
you don't, you will definitely feel it, get the injuries,
and then then yeah, that's the last thing you want.
So we definitely look after ourselves well, but we also
(05:35):
we also treat ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
As well good. I'm so glad, you know, I'm teasing
really because I know that when I get excited like that,
I'm like, I want something good to eat on that girl.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So tell me if you could without giving everything away
what are the names of some of the Irish tunes
or the ballads or the carrols that we'll be able
to hear that day.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So you'll hear we have we have a kind of
a fun Carol's number where the lads will come out
and they'll sing, you know, a couple of Irish carols
like a Silent Night and Rudolph the Red Nose right here.
But we'll put a little spin on it to make
it fun for the audience and just make a couple
of jokes in there and stuff, and then you'll hear
(06:16):
your Christmas in Calenie. There's a Galway Girl. There's different
Christmas songs incorporated into it as well, which really gets
the audience in that kind of festive spirit, especially we're
getting close to the Christmas now, a lot of Irish jigs,
Irish reels which are really fast paced. You know, we're going,
(06:39):
we're feeder going just as fast as the music is going.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So it's it's a.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Really special show that it kind of incorporates, you know,
that Irish culture. We're able to kind of spread that
I love for Irish music and Irish dands here in
America and where it's like it's so appreciated here. Whether
the audience or anyone that comes to see the show
has affiliation into Ireland, they might have ancestry in Ireland,
and they might also have no affiliation to Ireland, but
(07:05):
they just want to learn, they want to experience.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
What the music and the dance was like.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So it's really nice in that sense. And again as
we get close to the Christmas, you'll you'll have the
audience singing along to all the Christmas songs. So yeah,
it's a really really special show to incorporate the Irish
music and also that's fest of that's festive cheer as
we get close to the Christmas.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
What do you hope people take away from seeing the show.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I would love for people to come away to really
understand and try to understand and experience because Irish dancing
and Irish music is really at the heart of Ireland,
of our culture. So I know people might have the
different stereotypes about Ireland as you probably know, but the
(07:51):
Irish music and Irish dance is really at the heart
of it. So I would love for people to come
away from it really just getting an understand thing of
the of the music and the dance and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, coming away.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
We have all sorts of age groups that will come
to the show that we might You'll have little kids
up to grandparents and stuff. So it's really nice for
we have some kids that will come in and they
might say, oh, I've been doing tap dance. It might
be Irish dancer, might be tap dance, might be ballet,
and so it's really nice to kind of spread spread
that to even the younger generation that some might come
(08:27):
see the show and say, oh, you know what, I'm
going to start Irish ancing. I'm gonna, you know, I
love what I saw tonight, though, I'm gonna, you know,
get myself into that world, which is really special.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
It would be I love the costumes and the headdresses
that the women wear.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, it's I'm lucky in that sense that the
boys don't have too much to do and when when
it comes to getting ready for the show and getting
her hair, makeup and costume sorted. But the the girls
in the show really yeah, it's it's it's breathtaking what
they can and what they can do and the hair
(09:02):
and the makeup and the costumes and yeah, it's it's
really wonderful that we can also where we can show
Irish dancing and how beautiful it is, but we can
also you know, you'll see how beautiful and stunning everybody
looks on stage as well, with the costumes and the
lighting and we have the smoke machine and just everything
(09:25):
mixed together. It just it looks really really stunning from
our front.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You must feel so proud to be on stage with
the people from your country expressing your culture throughout the world.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. We have quite we have a large
cast of about seventeen eighteen of us. You know, we
have dancers, musicians, singers, are lighting and sound technicians, so
it's really beautiful. We have i'd say about maybe seventy
percent of us are Irish, and then we have Australian, Australians, Americans,
(10:00):
Canadians English. So it's a really special, really proud moment
for especially all of the Irish to be able to
be spreading that love for Irish dancing, Irish music in
America where it's it's so appreciated. The crowds are I've
never seen crowds like it.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I've been. I've done tours in.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Australia and New Zealand, England, and I've never seen anything
like it over here in America, and they just love it.
They're up on their feet before we even finish clapping,
singing dance on the long So it's a really proud
moment for me, for my family, for for everybody else
and their families in the show. Yeah, it's really it's
really special.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So Ken, how will someone know who you are in
the show?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
We have a program which will have.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We're having a program online which people can can check
out and they can see the different cast members, or
they can go on our Instagram page.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It's a taste of.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Ireland and they will see all of the cast, you know,
our different videos of whether it's dancing, whether it's you
know us doing Q and as us just having a
little a little bit of fun and explaining what we
get up to during the day, not even when it's
not in the show, just on days off and different
things like that. So I'm one of the lead dancers
(11:25):
in the show as well, so you see me come
out doing different solo pieces in front of the cast
behind me with the other lead female girl, so you
you definitely spot me coming out and running out, flying
around doing high kicks and jumping up as high as
(11:45):
I can go.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So that's how I hope you'd spot me.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I'm speaking with Kean Walsh. He's a dancer in the
show at Celtic Christmas by a Taste of Ireland. It's
at the Warner Theater on Sunday, December eighth. Get your
tickets at Warner Theater. Dad or Ken, thank you so
much for being here today, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I loved it.
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