Category: dance

I Lift My Lamp

Tara McGovernLeave a comment

Please join Coppers & Brass and the sister schools of Champagne Academy of Irish Dance and McGovern Music Studio for an Irish music and dance spectacular on Saturday, November 16th at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

I LIFT MY LAMP is the first of several events presented by Coralville Center for the Performing Arts inspired by “I lift my lamp beside the golden door” from the sonnet inscribed on the pedestal of The Statue of Liberty – “The New Colossus” by American poet Emma Lazarus.

The aim of the series is to highlight the immigration stories that enrich our nation and to celebrate our immigrant friends and neighbors.

One more haunted evening with Coppers & Brass

Tara McGovernLeave a comment
One more chance for haunted Irish music with Coppers & Brass! We’re delighted to have our special guests Champagne Academy of Irish Dance with us this evening at the wonderful Kalona Brewing Co.

We will be playing from 6 to 8 pm. Delicious scratch kitchen open all evening and let’s not forget the marvelous brews.

A new moon tonight means a dark and mysterious evening awaits.

Haunted Irish Music with Coppers & Brass

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Join Coppers & Brass (Frank Claudy, Joe Dutcher, Tara McGovern and Keith Reins) for our second annual Halloween Haunted Irish Music shows.

We’ll feature grisly songs and happy tunes for an early show (5 pm at the Sanctuary on Saturday and 6 pm at Kalona Brewing Co. on Sunday that will let you get home before the vampires wake up.

The Sunday version of the show at Kalona Brewing Co. is their annual Drink or Treat Halloween-themed night. We’ll provide haunted music from across the pond and the Champagne Academy Irish Dancers will be joining us for a bit of extra fun!

On tap for this event will be KBC’s Trick or Treat Pale Ale, made with actual Jolly Ranchers – available in-house only.

No cover for this special event; heavenly beers on tap and scratch kitchen open till close (8pm). Join us…if you dare!

Coppers & Brass with Champagne Academy of Irish Dance performing the music of David Hicks

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Coppers & Brass is honored to be performing the original music of our friend David Hicks from his wonderful collection The Storms of May in gratitude for his life and legacy.

We will be playing Dave’s music to accompany my McGovern Music Studio’s sister school, the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance, at the Iowa Dance Festival at The Englert Theatre this Saturday night October 19 at 7 pm.

David Hicks (1953-2016)
The Storms of May, available online
Tréa Champagne, director of Champagne Academy of Irish Dance

ArtFarm19, a festival of creativity hosted at Scattergood from July 4 – August 3

Tara McGovernLeave a comment

Flyer FINAL 1up-page-001.jpg

I’m thrilled to share this information from my friends at ArtFarm19! I will be there with bells on. Bells and heaven knows what else. Anything is possible.

Dear creative friends and collaborators,

I wanted to let you know about ArtFarm19, a festival of creativity happening near Iowa City this July. ArtFarm19 brings together artists, educators, entrepreneurs, healers, and movement builders, to share creative practices, find renewal and restoration on Scattergood’s rural campus, and participate in the launch of new regional arts programming. The mission of ArtFarm19 is to connect people across differences and harness the power of the arts to build a more JEDI (just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive) world.

Throughout the month, ArtFarm19 will gather together creative folks to participate in a variety of creative activities. Check out the opportunities below and RSVP for one or all of them:

  • July 4 (RSVP here)– opening potluck to greet the Swarm Artist Residency hive queens who will be curating 75 artists in residence this summer at Scattergood.

  • July 9 (RSVP) – Art Bazaar to meet the Swarm artists in residence.

  • July 14 (RSVP) – join The Great Parade in the Muscatine County Fair Parade in West Liberty – we will give you costumes, musical instruments, and puppets to play with as we make a spectacle and recruit more people to the creative force

  • July 15-17 – join us as we Build-a-Show in three days. The first day will be for designers who want to get inside the making of the show. The second day will be for people who want to be in the show. The third day will be for people who want to see the show we made. RSVP to join us for Day One-Designers, Day Two-Performers, or Day Three-Final Performance!

Attached is a flyer you can share with your networks. Please follow our social media platforms (linked below!) to keep up on all the events as they unfold. You can also fill out our contact form to be added into our events email.

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Eventbrite

#ArtFarm19Iowa

Buttonhole

Tara McGovern1 Comment

I have very good days and very hard days. Just like you. On the very hard days, I try a number of things to get back in tune. Different things work on different days. Social media never works. Dogs are a pretty reliable win. Poetry has never let me down.

Naomi Shihab Nye wrote this in one of my favorites of her poems: “I want to be famous in the same way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular but because it never forgot what it could do.”

This is me being the very best buttonhole I can be:

I remember this day. It was a terribly sad day for me because it was the last performance of a band I had played with for almost fifteen years.

Here I am happy though because I am useful. I love these three dancers and their joy gives me joy. Dance needs music and music needs dance.

Thank you, Tréa Champagne and the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance for being my buttons.

The international Irish dance community has suffered a tremendous loss in the death of beloved young dance champion Ian Luebbers.

Today is an important day to reflect on the truth that we all belong to each other and what’s most important is how we can love each other best in this world.

Without my buttons, I’m just a hole.