Celtica – Bruce Mason Centre, 21 August 2023: Review and Photo Gallery

Celtica is blazing modern Irish dance and music, connected to its deep ancestral roots. The Celtic Tree of Life symbol is prominent in the background.

Celtica is the current version of Celtic Illusion which has been performing for several years around Australasia. Founding performer Anthony Street may be one of the solo dancers tonight. He worked with the celebrated Michael Flatley on the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance award-winning shows of the Nineties.

The show begins with traditional Folk duo Polytropos. Rennie Pearson is a New Zealander who tonight plays a wooden flute, fast and furious at times. Oscar West is on fiddle with the high keening sound. At times he can mimic Irish bagpipes.

First dance is an ensemble with four guys and four gals. Great synchronised interwoven movement and tap-dancing which contains complex polyrhythms that touch on Indian percussion, more than the African talking drums.

Drums play a prominent role in the background and are pre-recorded. The taps are high in the mix, and I wonder if they are miked somehow. 

That is the natural sound of fourteen performers dancing on hard floors when they are in harmony. Captivating true World music and dance, WOMAD style.

With the first solo dance, we are introduced to Irish singer Rebecca Harkin. You are a dark one/ You have a way of moving mountains. A strong and controlled mezzo-soprano.

Seven men form up wearing Matrix style black jackets and perform martial arts type movement, which also could be a stylised haka. A warrior energy.

There are wonderful multiple costumes, and the women look fabulous in gold and black. This for a modern contemporary dance.

The influence of Bob Fosse, legendary choreographer and performer is to the fore when they all don red and black costumes and do a Cabaret styled dance. One of the highlights of Fosse’s career and Liza Minelli’s career peak.

A solo female dance is distinctly Middle Eastern, with the sensual and seductive elements of a belly dance. 

A flute solo highlights this, leading into a couple who perform a barefoot lovers dance. The clogs have come off. 

Celtic culture did spread through Europe, and there is definite influence from and probably to Eastern and Indian traditions.

A bodhran solo by Pearson later, sounds like rapid tablas.

Traditional Irish dancing still has a stronghold in America. A large part of Roots Country, Folk and Americana comes directly from the Irish traditions.

Researchers looking for what may have been lost in the home country found perfectly preserved music and dance traditions in the Appalachian Mountains and throughout the American heartland. It was vital and still thriving and is a foundation stone for how American music took over the world.  

It is the ensemble performances of Celtica which thrill, and they stretch out on the concluding vamp. To the delight of a full house audience.

Rev Orange Peel

Tickets are available from Ticketek

Photographs by Leonie Moreland

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