Feis

[upbeat music] You're listening to Planxty, a podcast exploring the rich tapestry of Irish dance and the community who loves it.

Hosted by Julia Topper, ethnomusicologist, Irish dancer, music educator, and writer, and Christos Sweeney, a 20-year Irish dance dad, live camera director for Feis TV, and operations manager at the Celtic Junction Arts Center.

[upbeat music] It's hard to believe it's September-

I know.

... lucky to be in the Rolodex, I guess, you know?

It's really cool.

I mean, I, I think I, I messaged, um, your daughter Hannah and just said like, "Well, your dad went from Feis Dad to, you know, stage manager, audio manager, to podcast host, to Irish dance reel." And she was like-

Yep.

And I think I would have done maybe decade of lessons in there, and I worked up through all of the, the grades, the Royal Irish Academy grades, and, uh, up to diploma.

And, um, I would have been involved in the Irish music scene as well, so I would have competed in competitions and Feises and that over the years on the accordion primarily up until I was about 16, I think, is when I met Conal O'Kane, uh, who is my guitar teacher to this day.

He's a, he's now my teacher and, and a client who I, I build for.

So, um- I think really meeting Conal and getting introduced to the guitar came kind of later, a little bit later, relatively speaking.

I know, I know we've all seen it.

I'm pretty sure it's because we've all passed it around between each other online, the trailer for the short film That's So Feis about, um, a woman in her 30s who breaks up with her fiance.

And obviously, you know, she's grieving her relationship, but she needs something to keep her going, and she finds a pair of old hard shoes that she wore when she was a kid when she Irish danced.

And she decides to go back to class as an adult and continue Irish dancing.

And to go back into an Irish dance class with kids when you are an adult is a weird feeling.

You don't know if you're gonna be accepted.

But in this short film, That's So Feis, um, Gemma is accepted by the younger Irish dancers, and I am thrilled and honored to have the star and the writer of the movie That's So Feis, Ali Hardiman, on the podcast.

So this is a little bit late because we both got messed up on time zones.