Nic Gareiss: Solo Square Dance
Solo Square Dance is a one-person percussive dance show created and performed by Nic Gareiss commemorating the 1935 Irish Dance Halls Act which banned citizens from dancing in homes. Always set in-the-round in domestic spaces, this 60-minute performance combines movement, speaking, and song inspired by this and other such dance bans, including the dancing ban in Pound, Virginia (only lifted in 1999!) which required that dancing permits not be granted "to anyone not a proper person, nor to anyone without good moral character." Solo Square Dance engages traditional and original step dance movement from Ireland, Canada, and Appalachia to explore the dialectic of public/private life, probing the subversive power of dancing bodies. The show begs the question: in light of its historic prohibitions, can dance act as a vehicle of transgression, liberation, and social transformation for our times?
Solo Square Dance is a one-person percussive dance show created and performed by Nic Gareiss commemorating the 1935 Irish Dance Halls Act, which banned citizens from dancing in homes.
Maryhouse 55 East 3rd Street, New York, New York, 10003
Doors: 7:30 pm
Show: 8:00 pm
Join us for a day with Nic Gareiss, including both the Appalachian Flatfooting Workshop and Solo Square Dance.
Workshop:
2:00 pm
Wear comfortable clothes and smooth-soled, supportive shoes with a low heel or no heel for this class.
Concert:
Doors: 7:30 pm
Show: 8:00 pm
Location for Both Events: 55 East 3rd StreetNew York, New York, 10003
Press for Solo Square Dance
“…the remarkable Nic Gareiss, provides a running (walking and dancing) commentary with insights into choreography, folklore, and social history which enthralled and amazed…Drawing together music and dance traditions from Ireland, Canada, and America - peppered with elements of his personal journey in the three countries, Gareiss communicates complex ideas with clarity, wit, and good humour!”
- Seamas Sheils, Fonn Magazine
"...this piece is a masterpiece. The intersecting thematic line in the piece is about pleasure, and how pleasure, in itself and in particular the pleasure of dancing, might be, and has been, perceived as threatening to the political and cultural status quo...the work finally resolves to come down on the side of pleasure rather than propaganda. This, for me, feels like a sort of softly experienced triumph."
- Steve Batts, Echo Echo Dance Festival
About the Nic:
Dancer Nic Gareiss (he/they) grew up at folk festivals in rural Michigan where he learned Appalachian, Irish, English, and Canadian step dance surrounded by fiddlers, banjo-players, and folk singers. This mix of traditional music, song, and movement has become the heart of Nic's creative work as a performer. Gareiss has been named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," was hailed by the New York Times for his "dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance," and called "the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald.
In 2020 Nic received the Michigan Heritage Award, the state's highest distinction bestowed on traditional artists. Holding degrees in music and anthropology from Central Michigan University and a MA in Ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick, Nic's thesis was the first piece of scholarship to query the experience of fellow LGBTQ+ Irish step dancers. He has performed in seventeen countries including at composer Steve Reich's 75th birthday celebration at the Cork Opera House, as well as at London's Barbican Centre, Paris' Salle Gaveau, the Munich Philharmonic, and Fall For Dance North, which presented Nic's collaboration with dancer Caleb Teicher at rural farms, parks, and vineyards across Ontario. www.nicgareiss.com / @NicGareissLFI
Credits for Solo Square Dance
Conception, creation, and performance: Nic Gareiss
Outside eye: Colin Dunne
All songs traditional, arranged by Gareiss, except: “Peaks of Otter” written by Jim Schulz
The development of Solo Square Dance was made possible thanks to a generous residency at the Irish Arts Center, New York