Chance of a lifetime for local Irish dancers
March 2006At least one of the local dancers who appeared with the legendary Chieftains at their first Arkansas concert last year will be performing at the Old Fort Celtic Festival in downtown Fort Smith March 11.
Jensen Hunt, daughter of Lana and Gary Hunt, and Valerie McDonough, daughter of Linda and Pat McDonough, were the only two dancers in Arkansas invited to join the Chieftains at their sold-out show at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville last year. Jen was 8 and Valerie was 18 at the time. Both were students of the Fort Smith McCafferty School of Irish Dance.
Jen and other students from the McCafferty schools in Fort Smith and Fayetteville will be dancing at the Old Fort Celtic Festival. Valerie, who is now a freshman at the University of Arkansas and dances at the Fayetteville school, also hopes to participate.
The Chieftains and their leader Paddy Maloney like to help launch the careers of talented young musicians and dancers by featuring them in their shows. Michael Flatley of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance fame got his first big professional break by touring with the Chieftains in the 1980s.
Canadians brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke are phenomenal performers and were guests of the band when it was in Fayetteville last year. Jon’s fiddling and Nathan’s dancing were so exuberant and contagious at the wedding party for Elvis Costello and Diana Krall that Paul McCartney was inspired to “join in – arms and legs flying” Paddy says.
Carlos Nunez, a Spaniard who first played with the Chieftains when he was 17, is now a huge star in Europe. The Cottars, four sensational teens from Nova Scotia who sing, dance, compose and fiddle are with the Chieftains’ 2006 American tour which ends after the band plays Carnegie Hall on St. Patrick’s Day.
Paddy likes to include local dancers and musicians at the band’s tour stops whenever possible. Two members of the Ozark Highlanders Bagpipe Band played with the band in Fayetteville last year and Judy McCafferty selected two of her Irish dance students (Jen and Val) to participate at the request of Chieftains lead dancer and choreographer, Donny Golden.
“I know that Jen didn’t realize prior to the performance what a once-in-a-lifetime experience it would be,” Lana Hunt recalls. “But by the time the evening was over she was absolutely walking on air. Everyone associated with the Chieftains treated her like a little dance princess and she felt like that’s just what she was for the evening. We found Mr. Maloney to be very encouraging to Jen and Val, as were all of the other band and cast members. As we were leaving that night, a little girl recognized Jen as the dancer that had been on stage and asked for her autograph. It really was a magical night for her.”
During the Fayetteville show, even the normally unflappable Paddy seemed surprised and delighted to find the Chieftains had so many enthusiastic fans in this area.
“It was a joy to be in Arkansas last year – we hope to return and we’re sorry it took us so long to get there,” Paddy said when he spoke to me by phone from New York recently.
Paddy was full of news about family, friends and music. He said his son Padraig had received his doctorate in nano physics from Rice University. “He’s our first Irish rocket scientist,” Paddy quipped.
A gifted composer and collaborator Paddy able to find a harmonic link between between Irish folk music and any other kind of music on the planet, was looking forward to a meeting with kindred musician Ry Cooder. “He has some Mexican/Irish ideas, we’ll see what happens,” Paddy said. He was also looking forward to the Chieftains playing with the University of Notre Dame Orchestra at the St. Patrick’s Day concert in Carnegie Hall.
Although I had hoped for years that the Chieftains would play their first Arkansas show in Fort Smith, it was wonderful to be able to see them less than hour’s drive away. But I still haven’t given up on the idea of the band performing here. Wouldn’t a Chieftains concert be a perfectly fabulous UA-Fort Smith event…maybe next year…perhaps in conjunction with the Old Fort Celtic Festival?
Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.
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