DANCERS Melissa Alberts and Samantha Wood will take to the stage to accompany the Durban Caledonian Pipe Band and Friends this weekend. The band presents the tenth annual production of Carols and Kilts – at Shongweni Farmers’ Market on Saturday, November 26 and at the DLI Hall in Greyville on Sunday, November 27.
This week, Berea Mail sat down to chat with the dancers and twin sisters to find out more about Celtic dance. Alberts, a Glenwood resident, and Wood, a Pinetown resident, perform as a duo under the name, Celtic Heartbeat.
Wood explained that Celtic dance includes Scottish and Irish traditional dance.
“Celtic dance is difficult to explain, so we always start by asking, ‘Have you seen Riverdance?’ There is a soft-shoe form of Celtic dance, which involves jumps and some ballet technique, and then the hard-shoe form, which is all about rhythm and timing and the sound you make with the block shoe. For the upcoming show, we will be performing a hard-shoe number with the drum corps of the pipe band, where we try to match their rhythm and sound,” said Wood.
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“There is also Scottish dance which would traditionally be performed in kilts, but we try to modernise our performances,” added Alberts.
While the dancers are often asked if they have Irish or Scottish roots, they don’t – their love of Celtic dance was sparked in their childhood.
“We started ballet when we were five years old, and when we were eight, we saw Riverdance on TV and immediately wanted to take up Irish dancing. At that time, it had just come to South Africa, and we started lessons straight away,” said Alberts.
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“While we don’t have any Scottish or Irish heritage, we feel like we do. Irish dance has always been in our lives. We competed for several years before we earned our teachers’ degrees. As teachers, we aren’t allowed to compete anymore, so we have passed the torch on to our students, but thankfully, we can still perform,” added Wood.
Wood and Alberts teach dance at their Pinetown-based studio, KZN Academy of Celtic Dance. The dancers trained under Bronwyn Parker at the studio since the age of eight, before taking over the reins from her in 2015. During their competitive years, both dancers placed in the top six in South Africa several times. Wood also qualified for the World Irish Dance Championships three times in 2008, 2009 and 2010, although she didn’t make the trip abroad.
The dancers offer dance lessons to children from the age of three and adults alike. For more information, email albertsmelissa27@gmail.com.
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