Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have Kean Walsh joining us on our phone line
to talk about this. Kean, thanks so much for being
a part of our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right, So, the Taste of Ireland looks like there's music,
there's dancing, there's some costumes. I am mildly familiar with Ireland.
I'll tell you how in a second. But can you
give me kind of the the one oh one of
what exactly people will be able to see with a
Taste of Ireland this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So at. Taste of Ireland is an Irish dance and
music show and it basically takes you, like the name
Taste Iroland, it takes you on a journey through Ireland
through from its creation and the Fena and the Vikings,
through the tough times of the famine and the Easter
Rising and right up to modern day Ireland. So it
(00:47):
really gives you a good taste of the history through
Irish dance and Irish music.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Irish music is something that's always fascinated me. I was
I was a young boy and I went church in
a small town in Iowa, and our pastor was Irish.
He was from Ireland. He was in the United Statess
he's you know, serving God. But because of that, he
would bring over these high school students, is like foreign
(01:14):
exchange students for school, but also they would have a
role in the church and they would all be from Ireland,
and so they would like buy ten whistles and like
show us how to play ten whistles and we would
listen in the church to this Irish style music and
it's so beautiful, but it's also so different, how you know,
much of that kind of traditional Irish sound still is
a part of the music and the traditions of Ireland
(01:37):
to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, well to do with the music really in Ireland,
you can bring like you'll go into Poktogo in anywhere.
It could be weddings, it could be funerals at all.
The Irish music really is such a huge thing in
Ireland and you'll have you know, people who bring again.
You can put the tin whistle in your pocket, you
(02:00):
can bring it wherever you want. You can bring your guitar,
you're accordion. It's a very traditional kind of music. And
again in the show, we have a fiddle player, we
have a guitarist, and we have a baron. So we
really try to show that in the show as well.
Through the numbers, you know, some of them might be
lower numbers go kind of pocas and then we'll lipen
(02:22):
it up in some other numbers. So we really try
to show that in the show itself as well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We're speaking with Kean Wall she is with a taste
of Ireland. So am I to believe you're a dancer?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Kean? I am a dancer?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, okay, So you got to tell me how you
got into this and the type of dance that you know.
Obviously we know this one's going to be some traditional
Irish dancing, but how did you get into dance? Is
this the kind of dancing that you've always done since
you've gotten into it?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, it is since day one. So my mother and
father back home in Ireland, they have their own Irish
stands in school and they teach it, so they kind
of from a young age. When I was, you know,
four or five years old, they threw me into the
dancing class and then I just grew to love it
and I've been dancing there for eighteen years. Was competitively
(03:10):
Irish dancing till I was about eighteen, and then I
moved on to the more professional and performing with My
Taste of Ireland, traveling the world, performing in different theaters
and shows. So yeah, really from a young age that
through my mom and dad is how I got into
the Irish dancing, which is as brilliant.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
The Taste of Ireland is coming to the halland Performance
Center of Performing Arts Center this Saturday, seven thirty pm
is the scheduled start time there downtown Omaha. Irish Dance.
You know, we talk about the music and some of
the different instrumentation that it goes along with that traditional
Irish sound that so many people are in love with
around the world. What about the dance as well, because
(03:49):
I feel like, you know, my wife is really into dance,
so I'm pretty familiar with Irish styles of dancing, but
it is so uniquely Ireland, right.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Like so you going compare to like
the Irish dance compared to like your you know, your
tap dance and other things like that. It's a lot
more cross at the feet and cross at the knees
and usually you'll see the arms done by the side
straight and quite rigid. But in the show it's definitely
a lot looser on the upper body. So we're moving
(04:20):
our hands, slaining them around the place like having fun.
Definitely not as rigid, but the actual Irish dance itself
is very very cross at the knees, cross of the feet.
Compared to your usual kind of tapway, you might be
a bit wider.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So yeah, yeah, what is the most challenging part of this?
You know, like I know, dancing is going to be
the only thing that makes you better at dance, But
what parts of your body? You know, you talk about
your legs and stuff, but I'm sure you need a
lot of flexibility to be able to do the kind
of dancing that Irish dancers need to do. So kind
of how do you stay loose and in shape when
you're doing this so many days in the year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, we try our best to just eat well, drink
a load of water. We'll make sure we warm up,
cool down, jumping the ice path straight after the show,
and a lot of stretching, rolling out, getting massages anywhere
we get a chance. I know, we're on the road
a lot, so it's quite tough to you know, have
a spare minute to go and get yourself looked at
(05:18):
if you've got any little niggles or pains anywhere. But
it's really up to ourselves and where everyone's quite good
on the tour. They all look after themselves and keep
us free from injury.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
What kind of size of the company do we have here?
How many people are traveling with you guys?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So we've got just short of about twenty people in
the company between male and female dancers, and we've got
three musicians, and then we've got our tech team as well,
so we've got a big group with us. I'm all
traveling together. But it's brilliant. It's a great way to
see especially this part of America. We haven't toured here before,
(05:57):
so we're just actually on the bus now traveling to Nebraska.
So we're loving it. We're loving it and we can't wait.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
For the show. That's going to be awesome though. They're
going to be coming here. The Taste a Taste of Ireland,
the Irish music and dancingstation that's going to be at
the Holland Performing Art Center downtown Omaha this Saturday, seven
thirty pm. Certainly going to be a very unique experience
with some world class dancing and music, and you'll be
seeing Kean Walsh up on that stage just part of
(06:28):
the program as well. Kean. We really appreciate the time
and the information. This is certainly going to be something
fun for the people of Omaha this Saturday, and enjoy
your time here in Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Thanks very much. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
All right, how about that that's going to be an
awful lot of fun. We got more for you on
the way at two forty five. Right now, it's news
Radio eleven ten in KFAB
We have Kean Walsh joining us on our phone line
to talk about this. Kean, thanks so much for being
a part of our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right, So, the Taste of Ireland looks like there's music,
there's dancing, there's some costumes. I am mildly familiar with Ireland.
I'll tell you how in a second. But can you
give me kind of the the one oh one of
what exactly people will be able to see with a
Taste of Ireland this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So at. Taste of Ireland is an Irish dance and
music show and it basically takes you, like the name
Taste Iroland, it takes you on a journey through Ireland
through from its creation and the Fena and the Vikings,
through the tough times of the famine and the Easter
Rising and right up to modern day Ireland. So it
(00:47):
really gives you a good taste of the history through
Irish dance and Irish music.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Irish music is something that's always fascinated me. I was
I was a young boy and I went church in
a small town in Iowa, and our pastor was Irish.
He was from Ireland. He was in the United Statess
he's you know, serving God. But because of that, he
would bring over these high school students, is like foreign
(01:14):
exchange students for school, but also they would have a
role in the church and they would all be from Ireland,
and so they would like buy ten whistles and like
show us how to play ten whistles and we would
listen in the church to this Irish style music and
it's so beautiful, but it's also so different, how you know,
much of that kind of traditional Irish sound still is
a part of the music and the traditions of Ireland
(01:37):
to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, well to do with the music really in Ireland,
you can bring like you'll go into Poktogo in anywhere.
It could be weddings, it could be funerals at all.
The Irish music really is such a huge thing in
Ireland and you'll have you know, people who bring again.
You can put the tin whistle in your pocket, you
(02:00):
can bring it wherever you want. You can bring your guitar,
you're accordion. It's a very traditional kind of music. And
again in the show, we have a fiddle player, we
have a guitarist, and we have a baron. So we
really try to show that in the show as well.
Through the numbers, you know, some of them might be
lower numbers go kind of pocas and then we'll lipen
(02:22):
it up in some other numbers. So we really try
to show that in the show itself as well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We're speaking with Kean Wall she is with a taste
of Ireland. So am I to believe you're a dancer?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Kean? I am a dancer?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, okay, So you got to tell me how you
got into this and the type of dance that you know.
Obviously we know this one's going to be some traditional
Irish dancing, but how did you get into dance? Is
this the kind of dancing that you've always done since
you've gotten into it?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, it is since day one. So my mother and
father back home in Ireland, they have their own Irish
stands in school and they teach it, so they kind
of from a young age. When I was, you know,
four or five years old, they threw me into the
dancing class and then I just grew to love it
and I've been dancing there for eighteen years. Was competitively
(03:10):
Irish dancing till I was about eighteen, and then I
moved on to the more professional and performing with My
Taste of Ireland, traveling the world, performing in different theaters
and shows. So yeah, really from a young age that
through my mom and dad is how I got into
the Irish dancing, which is as brilliant.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
The Taste of Ireland is coming to the halland Performance
Center of Performing Arts Center this Saturday, seven thirty pm
is the scheduled start time there downtown Omaha. Irish Dance.
You know, we talk about the music and some of
the different instrumentation that it goes along with that traditional
Irish sound that so many people are in love with
around the world. What about the dance as well, because
(03:49):
I feel like, you know, my wife is really into dance,
so I'm pretty familiar with Irish styles of dancing, but
it is so uniquely Ireland, right.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Like so you going compare to like
the Irish dance compared to like your you know, your
tap dance and other things like that. It's a lot
more cross at the feet and cross at the knees
and usually you'll see the arms done by the side
straight and quite rigid. But in the show it's definitely
a lot looser on the upper body. So we're moving
(04:20):
our hands, slaining them around the place like having fun.
Definitely not as rigid, but the actual Irish dance itself
is very very cross at the knees, cross of the feet.
Compared to your usual kind of tapway, you might be
a bit wider.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So yeah, yeah, what is the most challenging part of this?
You know, like I know, dancing is going to be
the only thing that makes you better at dance, But
what parts of your body? You know, you talk about
your legs and stuff, but I'm sure you need a
lot of flexibility to be able to do the kind
of dancing that Irish dancers need to do. So kind
of how do you stay loose and in shape when
you're doing this so many days in the year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, we try our best to just eat well, drink
a load of water. We'll make sure we warm up,
cool down, jumping the ice path straight after the show,
and a lot of stretching, rolling out, getting massages anywhere
we get a chance. I know, we're on the road
a lot, so it's quite tough to you know, have
a spare minute to go and get yourself looked at
(05:18):
if you've got any little niggles or pains anywhere. But
it's really up to ourselves and where everyone's quite good
on the tour. They all look after themselves and keep
us free from injury.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
What kind of size of the company do we have here?
How many people are traveling with you guys?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So we've got just short of about twenty people in
the company between male and female dancers, and we've got
three musicians, and then we've got our tech team as well,
so we've got a big group with us. I'm all
traveling together. But it's brilliant. It's a great way to
see especially this part of America. We haven't toured here before,
(05:57):
so we're just actually on the bus now traveling to Nebraska.
So we're loving it. We're loving it and we can't wait.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
For the show. That's going to be awesome though. They're
going to be coming here. The Taste a Taste of Ireland,
the Irish music and dancingstation that's going to be at
the Holland Performing Art Center downtown Omaha this Saturday, seven
thirty pm. Certainly going to be a very unique experience
with some world class dancing and music, and you'll be
seeing Kean Walsh up on that stage just part of
(06:28):
the program as well. Kean. We really appreciate the time
and the information. This is certainly going to be something
fun for the people of Omaha this Saturday, and enjoy
your time here in Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Thanks very much. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
All right, how about that that's going to be an
awful lot of fun. We got more for you on
the way at two forty five. Right now, it's news
Radio eleven ten in KFAB
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