Kildare Dancing at the Crossroads event on May 12
Old tradition come back to Celbridge
An exhibition of a very old type of social dancing will take place in at Castletown Gates in Celbridge on Saturday, May 12.
A Dancing at the Crossroads event will run from 7-9 pm with the Tara Ceili Band, at Castletown Gates, Celbridge.
The organisers are providing “free family fun” which will feature an exhibition of the Maypole Dance.
Uilleann pipe playing and a song or two from Mick Konstantin will be included.
Organiser, Breda Konstantin said if it is raining people those attending will be able to go to the Slip Hall Castletown Gates.
Explaining the historical element, Breda said the crossroads dance was a type of social event popular in Ireland up to the mid-20th century, in which people would congregate at the large cleared space of a crossroads to dance. “The crossroads dance declined in popularity in the mid-20th century, due to rural depopulation, musical recordings, and pressure of the Catholic clergy which resulted in the Public Dance Halls Act of 1935 which restricted all dancing to licensed establishments.