There’s less than one week to go before the 4th Pomegranates Festival of International Traditional Dance (25-30 April) kicks off at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and various venues across Edinburgh.
The Festival celebrates Scottish traditional dance alongside traditional dance practised by cultural migrant communities across Scotland. The festival includes exhibitions, films, workshops, masterclasses, talks, shows, walking tours and ceilidh dancing.
Pomegranates is produced by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and this year’s themes that run through the programme are Masks – the mystery and power they present when used in different dance traditions, and Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Programme highlights include:
● A discussion about safeguarding our Intangible Cultural Heritage and the opportunities for Scottish traditional dance with Steve Byrne Director of TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), Rachel Hosker of the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh and Árpád Vörös, recipient of the knighthood award for lifetime contribution towards Hungarian folk dance.
The discussion will be combined with demonstrations of traditional dance accompanied by live music including Scottish Country Dance, Step and Highland, with a Flowers of Edinburgh set by Scottish Step Dance artist Sophie Stephenson. There will also be a short display of two examples of traditional dances from Hungary and Poland that were recently inscribed in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list: Csardas (performed by Hungarian folk dancer Árpád Vörös) and Polonaise (performed by Anthony Carter, Fiona Lynch, Natalia Nowak and Renata Grillanda of Parzenica, Scotland’s Polish Folk Dance Group).
● A packed programme of ten short films celebrating Scottish Step, Highland, Indian Classical, East African, Chinese, and more. Including two short films directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Marlene Millar: To Begin the Dance Once More and Bhairava; Home directed by Kes Tagney and featuring Scottish stepdancer Sophie Stephenson; new work Second Guessing by Bgirl Emma Ready; and The Bright Fabric of Life commissioned by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland in 2024 and created by Estonian filmmaker Mare Tralla.
● New dance theatre piece not for glory devised and performed by award-winning dance artists Jack Anderson, Charlotte Mclean, and in collaboration with composer, and musician Malin Lewis. This contemporary and radical performance piece combines mesmerising and unique sounds from bagpipe, fiddle and loop pedal with energetic and raw dance and movement. Claiming to dissect heritage and resuscitate tradition whilst exploring kilts, queerness and ceremonial violence.
● For International Dance Day (29 April) audiences will be treated to a new dance piece Hidden Faces created by festival choreographer Jonzi D with support from B-girl Emma Ready and B-boy Sean Edwards. This new piecewill be performed by more than 15 Scotland-based dancers. Jonzi D is a MC, dancer, spoken word artist and widely recognised for his influence on the development of the UK British hip hop dance and theatre scene. Emma Ready is a breakdancer, choreographer and creative educator based in Glasgow. Sean Edwards is a multi-disciplined award-winning artist with roots in community theatre, B-boying, street jazz, clowning and mime.
Plus, there are tours of Edinburgh’s Old and New Town’s dance history, with dance historian Alena Shmakova; a special festival edition of the Traditional Dance Forum’s Ceilidh Plus which includes three hours of Scottish, Polish and Hungarian trad dances, all called on the night, with live music; and this year’s festival exhibitions by Lorraine Pritchard: Masks at the Scottish Storytelling Centre until 12 May and Venice Carnival (also inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list) at the Edinburgh City Library celebrates the popularity of mask-wearing traditions and the making processes behind this traditional craft.
Pomegranate Festival co-producers Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova said: “We are delighted that this year’s Pomegranates Festival is reaching new heights. With 15 events serving a ‘fascinating cocktail of movement’ this year’s Pomegranates highlights the intimate links of traditional dance with live music, film, fashion, poetry, art and heritage craft.
“Once again, we celebrate Scottish traditional dance alongside world-traditional dance practised by New Scots and cultural migrant communities across Scotland. However, we have two new festival themes – Masks and Intangible Cultural Heritage which we are delving into with our festival partners and over 100 artists.
“We can’t wait to share our discoveries over the long festival weekend with our new and returning audiences! Heel, toe, we are ready to go!”
The Pomegranates Festivalwill run from Friday 25 April to Tuesday 30 April 2025 and is Scotland’s annual festival of international traditional dance. Initiated and curated by Traditional DanceForum of Scotland it is presented and produced in partnership with Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
For tickets and more information visit https://www.tdfs.org/pomegranates/