What the Folk! - National Folk Theatre of Ireland @ Dance Base

With all the famed wit, verve, hospitality, and gift-of-the-gab of the Irish, not least a cup of tea and a piece of cake (Oh go on, go on), this is a dance event with a difference. Oh yes, there's plenty of song and dance (Irish step-dancing like you've never seen before, high-kicking in the cleared space of a kitchen. For this event does not take place in a studio. We were taken to a secret location, invited into the temporary home of the dance company, Siamsa Tire, from Tralee in County Kerry, for a hilarious, spell-binding and heart-warming 50 minutes' of craic.

In between the jokes, the stories about their childhood learning how to dance, the Psycho Mums who push their progeny with manic ambition into the Feis, (or the Fish) the four dancers broke into strict competition style-step-dancing, then the more relaxed North Kerry Munnix. And they are talented Gaelic singers too. We heard stories about the people of Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, and felt we knew them as friends by the end. What is, who is and what the folk? And boy, those kicks were pretty high!