French writer Baudelaire once described dancing as “poetry with arms and legs”, and its popularity is one of Galway’s best-kept secrets.
Now 77 dancers practising more than 20 different styles have participated in a “celebration” of the city’s ethnic diversity. Sean-nós, salsa, swing, ballet and bellydancing are among the styles highlighted in a documentary reflecting change in possibly the State’s most multicultural community.
Almost a quarter of the population is “new Irish” and dance is offering a real alternative to the drink culture, says producer Niall Ó Floinn.
Ó Floinn, who is a senior tai chi coach and tango teacher, engaged members of Galway's Latino, African and eastern European communities in the concept, which was filmed and directed by Polish-Galwayman Kamil Krolak.
“[The] main aim was to create a platform to show what we can all do, at any time in our lives,” he says.
Krolak directed the YouTube hits Fifty People, One Question and Galway is also Happy, which went viral with almost two million views.
Ó Floinn spent time in Burkina Faso and Ghana, and studied tango, salsa and rhumba in Argentina and Cuba after he fell in love with the movements through his initial interest in percussion.
“I learned how dance can express different stages of life, such as harvesting and other monotonous work, and how it crosses generations in a way that is very, very healthy,” he says.
“I wasn’t into night clubs when I was younger, and latterly discovered a live dancing scene in Galway that is so different to its image as somewhere to drink to excess,” Ó Floinn says.
The Galway Bailando project takes its name from the Spanish word for dancing, and the song of the same name by Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias.
Night music
Iglesias’s music provides the backdrop to the YouTube clip of the documentary, filmed overnight in Galway’s city centre and docklands with some 140 performers and musicians in total.
Among participants are Portuguese-Brazilian salsa dancer Pedro Alberto, US dance teacher and Galway dance project founder Genevieve Ryan, world champion-level Irish dancer Michaela McBride-O'Donoghue and sean-nós expert Marian Ní Chonghaíle and swing dancers Paul Neary and Brendan Connors.
Musicians include the Black Magic Big band, which plays live for swing dancers weekly, and salsa experts La Orquesta Kalamares.
The not-for-profit project was funded by Ó Floinn, along with contributions from several city dance venues, and the full documentary is currently being edited.
