Find Joy, Dance And Song At The Christmas Revels

By Gwen Orel

Next weekend, find joy, dance and song, on board an immigrant ship from Ireland in 1905. That's the premise of The Christmas Revels this year, a show that has something sparkly and seasonal for everyone in the family.

The Revels, a Winter Solstice theatrical extravaganza in its 30th year (with companies in ten different cities), offers dance (Morris dance, always!), song, storytelling, poetry and enactment of holiday rituals.

In four performances at Symphony Space this weekend (December 11-13), a cast of 80 players, including young step dancers from Niall O'Leary's school, an Irish band led by Brooklyn fiddler Tony DeMarco, and of course the Revels Chorus of Singers and Actors celebrate the Irish immigrant experience.

In 1905, over 50,000 Irish citizens left for the new world, bringing their Irish traditions with them, including their stories, their wit, their dancing and their song.

Producer Nancy Petaja chose to do an Irish-themed show as a way of uplifting the spirits of a stressed community: "The country's been in a hard time with the recession. It's time to get back in touch with our roots. Who we are, is an immigrant nation. The vast Irish immigration over 100 years is a prime example of the power of the American dream."

She attended a conference of Revel cities, to look at what Revels producers around the county have done. Thinking about what's going on in New York, and what would appeal to an audience, she found herself thinking about the Irish experience.

The Revels always take place in a different part of the world and a different time in history.

Some productions have taken place in old France, Scandinavia and Russia. Guest singers, dancers and storytellers, usually from the country where Revels take place, join the Revels performers. "We want to celebrate the vast array of cultural backgrounds that make up our great city and country," said Petaja.

She's been Executive Director and Producer for ten years; and involved for more than ten before that.

The Revels have had Irish-themed shows before; the last one was in 2002. Still, every show is a little different, Pataja explained.

The parent organization, Revels, Inc., develops the scripts, but "each city takes the script and makes it their own."

In New York, there's a wealth of Irish talent, and they had input into the show. While the last Irish Revels in New York were also set on a ship, the music and stories in this show will be different.

"Every Revels has certain core elements that are the same, like a picture frame," Petaja explained. "We always have the poem 'the shortest day.' We always have 'Lord of the Dance' in the aisles. We always end with the Sussex Mummers Carol. There's always Morris dancing, and a carol singalong."

But this year, the dance and music are firmly integrated into the show. Tony DeMarco played in an Irish-themed revels in 1995, and remembers that on that show, there were sections where the Irish band was showcased, and then they left.

Now, he says, the band is far more integrated into the show, playing riffs between scenes, interacting with the onstage action.

Music Director Cynthia Shaw picked DeMarco as bandleader, and DeMarco picked the band, who are some of the best players in New York: accordion player John Whelan, bodhran player Anna Colliton, and guitarist Eamonn O'Leary.

They will be featured individually in points, and there will also be some band solos, although at the time this article goes to press, music is still being arranged.

Anna Colliton has a duet with one of the dancers. "We'll be playing Irish traditional music, some jigs, reels and hornpipes," said DeMarco. There are some band solos. "I'll be playing underneath the recitation of 'The Fiddler of Dooney,' a poem by William Butler Yeats. I'm playing the tune to another poem he wrote, 'Sally Gardens,' which is on my CD, Sligo Indians, to tie it in with the poem."

Music also accompanies 'The Story of Daniel O'Rourke,' from Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by T. Croton Croker, which Yeats himself edited in 1892. It's about a man led astray by the fairies (or was it the drink?), who ends up going all the way to the moon.

The children's chorus sings 'There's a Big Ship Sailing', a Northern English song about the building of the Liverpool-Manchester Ship Canal in 1894-which was done primarily by Irish laborers; 'The Wee Fallorie Men,' a children's game song from Ireland, and, of course, a song in Gaelic: 'Ban Chnoic Eireann Oigh (The Fair Hills of Dear Ireland)' by eighteenth Century poet Donncha Rua Mc Conmara.

"We might throw in 'Christmas Eve,'" said DeMarco. "Maybe 'Jingle Bells' as a Kerry slide." DeMarco loves that it's a show not just for the whole family, but one which has people of all ages on stage, "from 9 to 70," he said with a laugh. "It really encompasses the Christmas family spirit, with the audience participation, where we ask them to sing along with us."

He also loves how much goes on it - "there are twenty things going on in each half of the show, maybe more."

The band needs to learn where to come in and out. And the band will be in costume, of course, which adds to the way the music is woven in to the overall story.

Says John Whelan, "This is my first true Christmas show!" Whelan made a Christmas album for Target stores with Jerry O'Sullivan, but has never performed in a show like this. "This has been a tough year, so I'm really excited to do this," he said.

Dubliner Niall O'Leary, former All-Ireland and World Champion, was referred to the Revels by the Irish Arts Center. O'Leary is performing there this coming weekend and next as part of Mick Moloney's "Irish Christmas" solstice concerts.

O'Leary was instrumental in identifying some of the stories in the show and also, of course, in choosing the young dancers from his school that will appear in the Revels.

The eleven children from the Junior Irish Dance Company who will perform, ages 7-16, are "the top dancers from New York," said O'Leary. One dancer is from White Plains, and another from Florida. The dancers are also integrated into the show as the general cast, dressed "as ordinary folk," so when they break into the major spots of dancing, one in each act, it is a part of the overall show, not isolated from it.

"Most shows we do, we're the main act, and it's about the dancing," said O'Leary. Here, his task was to pick the best dancers to participate to serve the show. Dancers include Gabriella Bloomgarden, who performs a solo with Anna Colliton on bodhran, and seven-year-old Siobhan Cohen. That those last names don't sound all that Irish is not at all unusual for New York, according to O'Leary: "A lot of the children aren't Irish; they really enjoy the dancing," he said. His school has a few hundred people all together, including some adults.

The Revels are always on Solstice - December 21st - the darkest day of the year. But "we never died a winter yet," is an Irish saying used in the Revels.

But the young dancers' tapping feet and spirited Irish music promise to bring light galore, pushing darkness away not only onstage, where immigrants tell stories and recall magical mythology from their Celtic past, but for the audience invited to dance and sing with them.