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Cultural Tourism, Meitheal, and Representation of Heritage: Traditional Step Dancing and Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Catherine E. Foley
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Extract

Cultural brokers at national and local levels, recognizing the lucrative potential of tourism, have learned to construct commoditized cultural packages for tourist consumption. In this paper I examine one such packaging phenomenon, and ask, “What is the effect of the commoditization of culture for purposes of tourism on local communities?” This paper investigates how a traditional step dance practice in North Kerry, Ireland, was contemporized and commoditized in the 1980s by Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, with a view to informing cultural understandings of Ireland and attracting tourists. Examining the impact of cultural tourism on the development of Siamsa Tíre, I argue that Siamsa Tíre's appropriation and re-presentation ofthe local Molyneaux traditional style of step dancing produced something new and gave the Molyneaux style a new lease on life at a time when this traditional dance practice and its associated rural contexts of performance were in decline.

Abstract in irish

Abstract in Irish

Aithnitear an turasóireacht mar phríomhearnáil tionsclaíochta ar fud an domhain agus tá sí ina gníomhaíocht thábhachtach don gheilleagar. Is feiniméan sóisialta í agus údar mór athruithe cultúir agus sóisialta dá bharr. Ni hiontas é, mar sin, an tsuim a chuireann lucht taighde inti. Ó na 1970idí i leith tá scoláirí de chuid na n-eolaíochtaí sóisialta ag mionscrúdú na turasóireachta agus a tionchar ar an tairgeadh cultúrtha i bpobail loganta agus náisiúnta. Díríonn an páipéar seo ar an tslí a ndearnadh oiriúnú, stíliú agus athléiriú ar chleachtas dúchasach damhsa faoi leith i gCiarraí Thuaidh i gcomhthéacs Siamsa Tire, Amharclann Náisiúnta Tire na hÉireann, ar mhaithe leis an turasóireacht chultúrtha agus le taiscéaladh na healaíne.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 47 , 2015 , pp. 141 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the International Council for Traditional Music

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