About
Rebecca McGowan is a dancer and teacher of traditional Irish dance in the Boston area. Drawing on the musicality of older-style step dance and sean-nós dance, the grace of soft shoe, and the joy of social dance traditions, Rebecca is interested in exploring step dance as music and making Irish dance lyrical and approachable. She often performs with duet partner Jackie O’Riley; together they released visual album From the Floor (2019) and audio album Eight Feet Tall (2023). They were recognized by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as Choreography Fellows (2022). Other projects have included directing contemporary step dance company Rising Step; reconstructing dances from the internet archive and exploring stylistic change over time; and developing Sound Shadows (2019) with Veronica Barron and Julia Friend, weaving shadow puppetry, dance, and song. Rebecca has been on the faculty of the Catskills Irish Arts Week, Acadia Trad Festival, Pinewoods, O’Flaherty Retreat, CCE MAD Week, and others. As a child Rebecca began dancing with Clare Sullivan, and later with Kieran Jordan and the Culkin School, and she continues studying with master teachers and dancing socially at local sessions. She teaches non-competitive step dancing for adults in the Boston area.
Inspired by the music album format, From the Floor is a “visual album” – a collection of dances and music caught on film – created together with Jackie O’Riley
is a collaborative Irish step dance performance company based in Boston. Exuberant footwork, keen musicality, and original, playful choreography celebrate the joy and art of Irish dance.
Rising Step’s mission is to inspire creativity in contemporary Irish step dance through performance of original choreography rooted in the musicality of the tradition. By creating a forum for Irish dancers to further their craft, Rising Step is elevating Irish dance as a professional art form. Rising Step’s dynamic, multifaceted choreography showcases Irish dance’s potential as a medium of artistic expression.
Knitting together dance and music, visual imagery and song, light and shadow, Sound Shadows draws details into relief and shows the unseen. Against a backdrop of Americana music and ballad singing, our movements, songs, and narratives carry myriad histories. We want to open our audience to dimensions that otherwise pass by unnoticed. We combine our art forms to celebrate how they enrich our experience of the world: tapping feet give dimension to banjo melodies; shadow pictures bring old stories to life; songs infuse emotion into movement. These dimensions inspire us to look for the invisible presence of where we came from and how it informs where we are going.