About the Company
The Kennelly Irish Dance Company is a talented and dynamic troupe that offers outstanding performances in both traditional and modern styles of step dancing and figure arrangements.
Whether in a concert hall, a small pub, a corporate party, a championship competition or an outdoor festival, the Kennelly dancers put on a powerful show. Critics have given the Company high praise: comparing the dancers' precision to the Rockettes, their grace and style to the American Ballet, and their audience rapport to a private house party.
The
Kennelly Dance Company is directed by Patricia
Kennelly, world-renowned Irish dance teacher, choreographer and musician.
The group holds titles from competitions across the United States, Canada
and Ireland — with dancers placing first and second in the 2002 North
American National competition, and first in the 2002 Great Britain championships
— and has made guest appearances with many well-known musical groups,
including Cherish the Ladies, De Danann, Arcady, the Black Family and
the Grammy-award winning Chieftains.
About a Chieftains performance in St. Paul, Minnesota, a reviewer wrote:
"The evening's high points came when a quartet of dancers [from the Kennelly Dance Company] reeled onto stage for some impressively athletic stepping."
— Rob Hubbard, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Performances
In the summer of 2001, the Kennelly Dance Company took the stage at the Hollywood Bowl's "Celtic Journeys" event, sharing the bill with such legendary Celtic performers as Lunasa, Altan and Natalie MacMaster.
The LA Times reviewed
the event on 8/1/00: "First-Rate Celtic Performers Set Toes Tapping
at Bowl," by Don Heckman. (Available online from the LA
Times (for a fee); search by keywords "World Music Review."
The Kennelly Dancers are also featured in video and television specials:
- Donny & Marie Show, St. Patrick's Day Special
- Folger's Commercial (which includes Kennelly dancer Sheelagh Murphy and on which Patricia Kennelly served as technical consultant)
- Ceílí Dancing Step by Step, produced by Olive Hurley. (For ordering information, visit Olive Hurley's Web site.)
- "And Still We Dance," produced by Ashley James, © 1988, City Celebration, Inc.