The company was founded to produce a show
that tells the story of stepdance IN Scotland...
Deiseil:
Dancing in Time
Deiseil: Dancing in Time is a powerful exploration of how stepdance, Scotland’s percussive dance, was lost... and how its revival became woven into a lifelong friendship.
Experience a compelling journey across centuries of tradition told through fiddle, feet, Gaelic song and story, in an immersive performance which draws you in to the heart of our heritage.
Directed by multiple award winning director Gerry Mulgrew (founder of Communicado Theatre Company), performed by dancer Alison Carlyle and musician Amy Geddes, and devised by Alison, Amy and Gerry.
Deiseil means “ready” in Scottish Gaelic : be ready for a mesmerising reflection on how issues of culture, identity and connection still resonate through society today.
Backstory and Show Credits
Creating and producing the show was a rich journey. You can read more about how it came to be in the Backstory blogs below. You’ll also find the full list of show credits.
Workshops
Deiseil: Dancing in Time offers the perfect opportunity for us to spend meaningful time in communities, connecting them with this tradition. We don’t just perform the show, we also teach workshops, engage with community organisations and settings and provide creative and mentoring opportunities for local artists.
Where can I watch it?
Upcoming performances and workshops will be listed in our Events page.
If you are from a theatre, community centre, school or other venue that would like to host the show, please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you!
The Making of DEISEIL: DANCING IN TIME
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Show Credits
Find out about all the people involved in the making of Deiseil: Dancing in Time!
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Dream it.
Alison and Amy first worked together in 1998 as founding members of pioneering group The Scottish Stepdance Company.
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Build it.
On starting the creative process that would lead to Deiseil: Dancing in Time, we wanted to explore the personal, social, historical and modern contextual issues arising out of the near-extinction and subsequent revival of stepdance in Scotland…
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Grow it.
Following the successful R&D for Deiseil, Amy and Alison founded Deiseil Airson Dannsa as a company, to take forward both the future production, staging and touring of the show, and its wider aims of promoting, preserving and developing Scottish stepdance…
We want to give Scottish and Gaelic communities a new pride in this vital part of their culture, and give others a deeper experience of Scottish traditions.
To that end, we aim to attract interest from promoters and others to support future touring of the work through Scotland and further afield, focussing particularly on rural communities in which issues of identity and sustainability of tradition are most acute.
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“That was an absolute joy just hugely inspiring, really moving, and just helped us to see but in such a beautiful way just all that was lost but all that we’re getting back””