Footprints

This Celtic-flavoured dance and music fusion show is a collaboration between High Heart Dance company, singer Emily Smith and multi-instrumentalist Jamie McClennan and his band, whose folkish sounds make a beautiful foil for the simple, graceful choreography. It’s showing as part of the Made in Scotland programme, and as a tribute to the country’s dance and music heritage with a distinctly contemporary feel, it makes a great way to spend an afternoon hour.

A four-strong dance team unfolds neat formations and airborne partnerings with clean swishing style, turning patterned swirls into hints of Triskeles and other ancient designs.

The phrasing is woven smoothly into the music, picking out motifs and making shapes out of tunes. The result—combined with the casual turquoise and aquatic blue costumes—is extremely pretty and lively.

It’s nice when the stories of the music give relationships to the dance, as is the case in the tale of "twa sisters", leading to a competitive and playful wrestle. Also great is the idea of pairing Scottish folk music with something other than ceilidh or country dancing: the smoothness of it provides a refreshing modern feel and gets inside those sweet lilting tunes.

It would be disingenuous to say the folk music is the real star—the whole thing works so beautifully—but Jamie McClennan’s fiddle playing is sometimes distractingly brilliant.  Whether that’s a good or bad thing you’ll just have to go along and see.