At an agreed time in the evening a haunting sound of ancient Celtic music can be heard echoing in the room. Cloaked figures carrying candles move majestically through the crowd. They form a guard of honour along the walls of the room, as an imposing figure our bodhrán player enters.

He walks through the crowd and without saying a word steps up onto his designated table and starts his performance with a high intensity solo followed by some audience interaction. During this time, some of the cloaked figures have positioned themselves onto their tables crouched down awaiting the call.

Then with a loud cry and a commanding strike to the bodhrán, the dancers drop their cloaks and erupt into a spectacular hard shoe a cappella performance trade-off against the bodhrán. This generally results in an immediate outburst of spontaneous applause from an astounded audience!

The piece continues with the appearance of a Celtic Warrior Drummer who enters the room. There is a trade-off between the bodhrán and the drum. At the end of this show-down, the drummer has apparently lost the fight, but he has one last trick up his sleeve. To the delight of the crowd, he finally calls 4 female dancers to join him. After one more routine, all 8 dancers and 2 percussionists perform a spectacular hard shoe routine. A powerful dance off then ensues, percussion versus dancers in a sensational duel of rhythm, noise, exhilaration and a huge roar to finish.

As an Optional Piece:

If there is a suitable stage for dancing on, the dancers can then take to the stage where they perform a further 10 min show of rapid footwork, graceful elegance and diverse choreography, culminating in a “Riverdance” style finale. With the use of some theatrical lighting effects, this short but breath-taking performance with its climatic finish will astound any audience and leave them wanting more.

Whilst this optional piece can be done and is free of charge it may be sometimes better just have the high impact performance on the tables and leave the guests with a WOW feeling.

See Our Video:

Celtic Surprise from Mark Byrne on Vimeo.