Killarney

Kerry Dancers Set Dancing Club

Kerry Dancers Set Dancing club was formed in September 2011. To address the fall of in numbers in Co Kerry at ceilis and also to bring a festival of Set Dancing and Traditional Music to North Kerry as this part of the county was bereft of a festival of this style. We held our first Sweets of May festival in 2012 in The Earl of Desmond Hotel Tralee. In 2013 we added our Compose a New Set Competition to celebrate The Gathering, This was a huge success, and we continued with it in 2014 and 2015 This festival has attracted dancers from all over the world. Our compose, a new set competition gave a forum for composers of new sets to have their set evaluated and also to have it included in the mainstream of sets danced at ceilis. This competition attracted dancers from across the world to dance their composition. Countries represented included Australia, Italy France Germany. Switzerland England Scotland and patrons from all over Ireland. We ceased the competition in 2016 and concentrated instead on recording and archiving sets for future generations to learn teach and enjoy this element of our culture We are a nonprofit organization and began this festival with money loaned to the club by four members. Happily, we have been able to refund these generous members. We hire three of the best Ceili Bands in the country to play for our Sweets of May ceilis and also are privileged to have Pat Murphy teach our workshops. Pat is a world-renowned set dancing teacher and has taught all over Ireland, England Europe USA, Canada, and Australia. Pat has also published four set dancing books with notes for each set.