“Keepers of the Steps,” an Irish dance historical preservation, archive, and outreach program, has quickly grown to be a cornerstone program for the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco (UICC).
Created in 2021, the inaugural month-long exhibition struck an untapped nerve in the local community being both an amazing re-telling of San Francisco Irish history while highlighting the immigrant experience dating back to the California Gold Rush days.
Since that first exhibit, the Keepers of the Steps have created various exhibits at events and locations including the 2022 Western Region Oireachtas (hosted in San Francisco), the San Francisco Historical Society Museum in downtown San Francisco, the Marin Irish Festival—Céilí on the Lake, and a host of smaller events and pop-ups connected with the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco.
Thank you to everyone who came out this past weekend to Iowa Irish Fest. You came, braved the heat and the sound of Gráinne croaking really badly and cheered us on. We ♥️♥️♥️♥️ you all! Thank you to the wonderful people from Culture Ireland for their incredible support of us! 💚 pic.twitter.com/9Z7VrHKA4K
— Screaming Orphans (@screamingorphan) August 6, 2024
On the heels of a successful five-month exhibition at the San Francisco Historical Society Museum, Keepers of the Steps consulted and collaborated with the Iowa Irish Fest, during their 18th annual event held on the first weekend in August 2024. The festival’s workshop chair, Kate Schildroth, learned about the UICC’s Keepers of the Steps program at a 2022 conference in Kansas City where leaders of the nation’s Irish Cultural Centers met up with leaders and organizers of Irish festivals. UICC President Liam Reidy was talking up the Keepers program, and Kate was listening and thought the concept to be a perfect fit with the Iowa Irish Fest’s cultural programming goals. She followed up with Liam who immediately connected her with Keepers co-chair and San Francisco Bay Area Irish Dance historian Eileen Mize, and a wonderful partnership was created. CÉILÍ HOUSE: Iowa Irish dance teacher Kelly Schulte putting the finishing touches to the Keepers' exhibition
Eileen provided an overview of the Keepers program and encouraged Kate to reach out to local dance schools in terms of raising awareness about the festival exhibition plans and preservation efforts and the solicitation of old dance costumes and ephemera such as shoes, medals, wigs, etc. to add visuals to the display.
While there is no Irish Dance school (yet!) in the city of Waterloo, home to the festival, Kate identified three schools with locations in the state of Iowa, and whose dancers were invited to perform at the festival— the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance (North Liberty, Iowa), the McNulty School of Irish Dance (Dubuque, Iowa), and the Foy School of Traditional Irish Dance (Des Moines, Iowa).
Keepers of the Steps co-chairs Eileen Mize and Anne Cassidy Carew traveled to Waterloo, Iowa in August 2024 to see the exhibit and experience the festival.
"It was wonderful to celebrate and recognize the achievements and history of the local dance schools," Eileen told the Echo. "The McNulty School of Irish Dance under the direction of Barbara McNulty, TCRG and Foy School of Traditional Irish Dance, under the direction of Geraldine Foy, TCRG each hail from Illinois and offer satellite locations in Iowa while the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance, founded in 2007 in North Liberty, Iowa by Tréa Champagne, TCRG, is the only certified school originating in Iowa. Each school enjoyed wonderful performances on the various festival stages in 2024 as well as a feature story panel in the Irish Dance in Iowa Irish dance exhibit, thanks to the collaboration with Keepers of the Steps."
There was a wonderful display of various styles of dance costumes on display, proudly donated by the Foy School. During the fest, the Trinity Irish Dancers conducted workshops and performed.
Added Eileen: "The Keepers leaders hope is that this is just the beginning of such partnerships. We look forward to teaming up with and empowering other festivals and cultural centers to get involved. We have made contact with several event organizers in other locales who were expressing interest in replicating the Iowa efforts—a movement is underway!"
News of the Keepers program should reach greater audiences come January 2025 when the PBS series, “Ireland with Michael” airs its coverage of the Iowa Irish Fest, which includes the story of the Keepers of the Steps.
