A dance collaboration sees a melding of Indian kathak and Irish sean-nós at this year's Éigse, writes Michael Seaver

They might appear an odd couple. She is pretty and petite, of Indian descent with a well-spoken English accent, sitting straight-backed on the edge of a couch. He is a tall Connemara lad, quick to grin and sprawled on a chair that seems a bit too small for him. If you want to know what brings them together look down to the floor: it's their feet.

Sonia Sabri, a kathak dancer based in Birmingham, and Seosamh Ó Neachtain, a sean-nós dancer, are in a posh Dublin hotel after a photo shoot to talk about their upcoming performance at Éigse Carlow Festival.

It's a collaboration, coming together with their musicians for a week during the festival and then presenting a performance of whatever emerges during the six days. So the obvious first question is what do they think might emerge from this unusual amalgamation? Their eyes meet, silence, and eventually Ó Neachtain says, "Eh . . . we don't really know, actually."

"It is a risk and an experiment," says Éigse director Marina Rafter. She is the matchmaker, having worked with both artists separately during her sojourn at International Dance Festival Ireland (IDFI). "I had a feeling that the two traditions, kathak and sean-nós, would work well together." Ó Neachtain and the tap dancer Tamango, from French Guiana, came together for a similar type of project during IDFI in 2006.

"That was an amazing experience," says Ó Neachtain. "Again we had no idea what would some out of it, but once we got into the studio it all clicked . . . so to speak."

Although there is a more traditional connection between the tap and sean-nós dance traditions, all percussive dancers have a loose affiliation. But however much it is about the feet, Sabri and Ó Neachtain's gait on stage are poles apart. He has a loose fluidity as he hunches over, trailing hair hiding his face as his eyes are fixed downwards. She constantly looks outwards, her face an important expressive element of her performance.

"Kathak is about storytelling," Sabri says. "It brings together narrative and technique, so the hand gestures or facial gestures play as important a role as the feet."

Rather than other percussive dance styles that are ruthlessly technical and all about how fast you can move your feet, kathak blends fluid upper body movements with vigorous footwork, somewhat similar to flamenco. Although Sabri regularly engages with other musical and dance forms, she baulks at the idea of fusion.

"It's a scientific term and when you talk about fusion in art it implies that the individual elements have melted and lost their identity in creating a new thing. What I want to do is create new experiences."

Her stage productions range from presenting classical North Indian Kathak to more contemporary productions such as Drishti (meaning vision or perception), which was created with contemporary choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh and composer and digital artist John Marc Gowans. This has brought her attention from the contemporary dance world and in 2006 she received a commission for the Place Prize, a prestigious British-based choregoraphy competition; another for the BBC dance programme Blast, as well as a Bonnie Bird Award, which supports emerging choreographers.

Although mostly known for his solo performances, Ó Neachtain has also collaborated with other dancers and musicians. This is where things begin to diverge, as the tools and very vocabulary they both use in their collaborations differ.

Ó Neachtain describes a process of creating by dancing with his musician rather than sitting down and talking about it. Nothing is worked out but they feel rhythms and phrases together and set up a dialogue through that interaction. Explaining how he trained he says, "I just learned dances" and then listens to Sabri describe her lengthy codified training regime. Although kathak is extremely sensory-based, rhythmic sub-divisions might be worked out in advance.

The dialogue between the Irish and Indian musicians will also be rich. "There's a natural harmony and blend between the two forms," says Ó Neachtain.

When Rafter first proposed the collaboration he was a bit uncertain about working with kathak, but these doubts were dispelled after meeting Sabri. "Then when the musicians came on board they took it to a new level. [ Bodhran player] Jimmy Higgins is incredibly excited about it."

"I haven't had that much experience of Indian music apart from having the odd Ravi Shankar record at home," says Higgins. "But I've always found the tabla interesting and the way you can change the pitch by putting pressure on the skin. You also get that tonal variation with the bodhran, so I'm looking forward to the possibilities of marrying those two sounds."

Higgins has worked with Altan and some rock groups, but hasn't collaborated with other ethnic musicians. The metric sophistication of Indian music is also appealing. "They have the ragas, which are the notes they'll use, and the rhythm is called the tala. It's incredibly complex and will be challenging to me from a rhythmic point of view since I've been ingrained by jigs and reels. Higgins will play alongside fiddler Jesse Smith, tabla player Sarvar Sabri, sitar player Carl Pebardy and vocalist Satnam Galsian.

The project fits into Rafter's plans to have artists resident in Carlow during the festival.

"This project is unique because it can be brought together so quickly and, after just six days in the studio, a really exciting performance is created," she says. "And all through that week these seven music-makers and dancers will be walking around the streets of the town. It's nice that Carlow will have played a part in creating the piece."