“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, their inaugural month-long exhibition struck an untapped nerve in the local community being the “first of its kind” and 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—Céili on the Lake, and a host of smaller events and pop-ups connected with the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco.
A key vision of this ever-expanding program aims to inspire and help other communities engage in similar preservation work within their own community. Irish dance archival work and documentation are scarce given the largely oral nature of the tradition over centuries, but Irish dance, in its many genres and forms, is undoubtedly one of the most enduring, visually stimulating, and lived examples of our Irish heritage.
Diligent preservation of the art form is paramount, and time is of the essence.
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 its 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 local (San Francisco Bay Area) Irish Dance historian Eileen Mize, and a wonderful partnership was created.
Early on, Eileen provided an overview of the Keepers program and how it has evolved and then 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).
Eileen re-purposed a number of the more generic Irish dance history and general information panels from the San Francisco events, for use at the Iowa exhibit, and stories and items from the local schools began to emerge—an exhibit began to take shape.
Keepers of the Steps exhibition. (Keepers of the Steps)
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. They were delighted to participate and eager to share their passion for the preservation efforts of this important cultural phenomenon.
Both Eileen and Anne were so impressed with the commitment and dedication to cultural preservation exhibited by festival planners and found a kindred spirit in Workshop Chair Kate Schildroth. Kate’s dedication and vision was realized, and the Irish Dance community in Iowa and beyond are stronger for it.
Anne Cassidy Carew and Eileen Mize. (Keepers of the Steps)
It was wonderful to celebrate and recognize the achievements and history of the local dance schools. 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 as well, proudly donated by the Foy School. One of the former dancers of the Chicago-based school offers a satellite dance class in Des Moines.
Foy School alum Kelly Schulte teaches the Des Moines class and is proud to carry on the Irish dance tradition she grew up with in Chicago to the benefit of many dancers, including her own daughter Quinlynn Schulte.
They were delighted to see old—yet beautiful—dance costumes that would otherwise be relegated to the back of the closet, get a new lease on life for the benefit of sharing the story of Irish dance.
Kelly Schulte. (Keepers of the Steps)
There may have been a tear or two shed as “seeing my daughter's first solo dress” in the exhibition was an emotional experience for Iowa Irish Fest volunteer, Jody Halsted.
Irish dance costumes. (Keepers of the Steps)
The other Irish dance component of the festival is the participation of the Trinity Irish Dancers who conducted workshops and performed through the festival. Irish dance workshop participants were then treated to a tour of the exhibit, deepening their understanding of the immense history and cultural significance of the art form.
Kelly Schulte shows guest about Irish dance shoes. (Keepers of the Steps)
The Keepers leaders hope that this is just the beginning of such partnerships and look forward to teaming up with and empowering other festivals and cultural centers to get involved. To the delight of Eileen and Anne, contacts were made with several event organizers in other locales were expressing interest in replicating the efforts—a movement is underway!
In addition, 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. Emmy®-nominated program producer and host and Wexford native Michael Londra interviewed Eileen and Anne about the program in what will be his very first “Ireland with Michael” program filmed outside of Ireland.
As a former Irish dancer himself (he claims otherwise, but knows the steps!) with a passion for sharing the richness of the Irish culture with viewers far and wide, he was struck by the concept of Keepers of the Steps and was enthusiastically supportive of their efforts.
Michael’s soft spot for Irish Dance also goes to the fact that he was part of the early cast of Riverdance as lead tenor alongside Jean Butler and Colin Dunne and continues to work on Broadway productions when not filming his TV series.
He and Eileen concluded the interview with an impromptu rendition of the traditional set dance “St. Patrick’s Day” - further proving the universal language of Irish Dance is as strong as ever as two otherwise strangers danced the same steps in perfect unison without missing a beat - literally!
He plans to visit San Francisco in the not-so-distant future for a deeper dive on the preservation efforts, as well as learn more about all of the exciting things happening at the UICC!
“Ireland With Michael” episodes are also offered as part of Aer Lingus’ transatlantic entertainment, so chances are that this episode will be available to travelers flying with Aer Lingus next Spring— maybe just in time for the 2025 Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne which will be held in Dublin. Imagine all those dancers and families making the flight and finding Keepers of the Steps on their inflight entertainment!
Mirroring the aspirations of their parent organization (the UICC) in terms of building meaningful alliances that advance the efforts of cultural preservation, Keepers of the Steps organizers hope that their efforts in San Francisco can inspire broader partnerships and that the global Irish community can work together to highlight and preserve the cultural richness of our shared Irish heritage - especially through a vibrant lens of dance.
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