Step Dance

Lift your heels to the jigs and reels!

Sophie Stephenson is a traditional dancer from the Highlands who specialises in a close to the floor style of percussive step dance. As a skilled and passionate exponent of the tradition, she is in high demand as a performer and teacher across Scotland and internationally. Sophie has collaborated on a wide variety of projects within music, theatre, film and education and has performed with Scottish artists including Donald Shaw, Dàimh, Huradal, Talisk, Capercaillie and Fara as well as international acts such as Carlos Nuñez, Xabi Aburruzaga, Anxo Lorenzo, Còig, Oreka TX and The East Pointers.

In this weekend course at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye, Sophie will be joined by Eilidh Scammell (Skye) and Mairi Campbell (Edinburgh) to teach a variety of traditional strathspeys, jigs and reels steps. Scottish step dance is a fun, active and social activity for all ages and – whether you are trying step dance for the first time or have danced before and are looking to learn new steps and work on technique – this course will cater to different ages and levels of ability. The course will encourage participants to make the steps their own; to improvise, experiment and explore the creative and rhythmical possibilities of step dance both in solo performance and social dance. There will also be opportunity for discussion on the wider context of percussive dance and questions about the cultural context and evolution of step dance in Cape Breton and Scotland.

The course runs alongside a fiddle weekend with Ronan Martin and Mike Vass which means there will be plenty of opportunities for tunes and dancing in the evenings! What could be better than a weekend on the beautiful Isle of Skye with music, dance and merriment? On the Saturday night there will also be an opportunity to see Mairi Campbell’s one woman theatre show with live music, animation and movement, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year (tickets available via SEALL).