Alison Carlyle

Alison has been performing Scottish stepdance since 1998, after learning from leading Cape Breton dancers as it was reintroduced to Scotland in the mid 1990’s.

She was a founding member of pioneering group The Scottish Stepdance Company, whose ground-breaking work in exploring the relationship between music, dance and Gaelic song, and presenting the performance of stepdance, was critically acclaimed at the time (“seamless interleaving of music and stepdance… powerful percussive force” – The Irish Times) and remains hugely influential today.  

Between 2013-2015, Alison was part of a smaller line-up of The Scottish Stepdance Company who created and performed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye and An Lanntair, Stornoway. In 2019, Alison co-wrote and choreographed Step+, a piece commissioned by Glasgow Cathedral Festival. 

Alison has appeared as a guest dancer with a wide variety of traditional music artists, and has collaborated with musicians such as Amy Geddes, Mairi Campbell and Fin Moore to present weekend courses for musicians and dancers to work together to explore the links between stepdance and traditional music. 

Alison also has a wealth of experience in teaching stepdance. She has taught extensively for organisations such as Scots Music Group, Fèisean nan Gàidheal, Fèis Rois, Ceòlas and Hamish Moore’s Barga School of Traditional Music and Dance, as well as running her own classes in Portobello.

From 2009 until 2019, Alison was chair of the arts charity Scots Music Group.