Greater Washington
Ceili Club
last updated Feb 08, 2010
(non-member
Newsletter)
Next Special Event - Patrick O'Dea
Workshop
GWCC monthly dance |
Dance Lessons |
Patrick O'Dea
set dance workshop
Feb 27, 2010
Spring Fling
March 26-28, 2010
2009 Cape May
Set Dance Weekend
Oct 22-24, 2010
Annual New Year's
Eve Ceili
Friday, Dec 31, 2010
| Articles from GWCC members
(Amusing / Informative) |
The Greater Washington Ceili Club (GWCC) is a non-profit organization,
organized and incorporated in 1985, to promote traditional Celtic dance,
music, and culture. The club sponsors, supports and encourages ceilis, concerts
and other programs for the enjoyment of its members and the community at
large. You are invited to become a member,
and more fully participate in the following GWCC activities:
- We provide 9 monthly dances,
including our gala New Year's Eve event. Our monthly dances always feature
live music from the best bands available in the Baltimore / Washington area.
Even if you don't dance, for the price of admission and a dish,
you can share an outstanding potluck dinner and some
terrific traditional Irish music.
- We co-sponsor a full, year-round program
of dance instruction for adults, featuring traditional Irish set
dances. Accommodating new dancers and challenging the experienced,
classes provide solid instruction in a non-intimidating atmosphere. We also
invite dancers to join us for a mini-ceili once each
month to dance to live musicians and highlight some of the dances
learned in class, but seldom included in a standard ceili dance list.
- We produce the annual
Autumn Set Dance Weekend in Cape
May (celebrating it's 20th year) the best workshop on the East
Coast dedicated to Irish traditional dance instruction. Bringing premier
dance instructors from Ireland since the very beginning of the resurgence
of traditional Irish country sets, this event continues to be recognized
as one of the most intensive weekend of set dancing in the USA, with
a total of 7 hours of dance workshops and 8 hours of ceili dancing, plus
a concert. In 2004 we added our
Spring Fling Weekend
- We also upgrade our regular dance classes into
mini-workshops with Patrick O'Dea, Timmy McCarthy, and others as
available.
- We financially contribute to the sponsorship of
students of Irish music and dance to study/perform in Ireland
through our Frankie Kennedy Memorial Scholarship
Program and Irish Cultural Experience Travel Grants. Also,
donations made by the dance classes are used to help support the work of
the Frost School where we
have our classes.
- Our activities have been covered by local media
(see articles)
- Our dancers perform regularly at the Southern Maryland
Celtic Festival, the Potomac Celtic Festival, and the Dublin (Ohio) Irish
Festival. As much as we enjoy the dancing ourselves, we also enjoy
the opportunity to share the thrill with the crowds and we include
a lot of audience participation in our performances. We are dedicated
to promoting the appreciation of traditional Irish music and dancing
- We also perform at area nursing homes throughout the year
as a community service. We find it is as rewarding for us as it is entertaining
for them. If you are interested in scheduling a performance/event please
email for more details. (Please
note: the majority of our performers are
working adults, so we are generally not available to participate in daytime
Mon-Fri events.)
- We have provided volunteer workers as well as performers,
for local festivals and cultural events.
- Finally, there's our monthly Newsletter,
In Step, which provides listings
of many more Irish events in the area; and there is this
GWCC website to maintain our
presence on the Internet.
- Our annual General Membership meeting is usually held preceding the
October ceili, at the Cherry Hill Conf Center. The GWCC is governed by elected
the Officers and a Board of Directors with
assistance of several Committees.
To become a GWCC Member - print this
form
| Photos -- Spring Fling (2009) St. Pat's + Spring Fling (2006) St. Pat's + Spring Fling (2004) Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival 2002
New videos from Western Maryland |
|
Greater Washington Ceili Club PO Box 1703 Silver Spring, MD 20915-1703 email: info@gwcc-online.org
|
