Brian’s PhotoPile

On a Sunday two weeks ago I drove out to the State Historic Site at Ganondagan to see Cercle Celtique. I missed Cercle Celtique when they performed at the Fingerlakes opening reception at the Memorial Art Gallery because I was over listening to Jessica Lange discuss her photographs at the George Eastman House. Cercle Celtique is a group that performs traditional Breton dance and music. The group was founded in Rennes, France, our sister city, and they were visiting Rochester as part of the Rennes-Rochester Sister City program. Wearing traditional Breton attire the dancers performed round dancing, square dancing, line dancing and the gavotte, which was a favorite in the court of Louis XIV. Some of the musicians pereformed with authentic instruments such as the Biniou, which is similar to a Scottish great Highland bagpipe and a bombarde which is a conical bore double-reed musical instrument. The drummer for the most part used his hands beating on a set of bongo drums and cymbals. It was a lively performance and was topped off at the end when the audience, including Peter Jemison wearing his traditional Indian garb, joined in a line dance.