by Tanya Steele
Irish dancing teacher and Healesville resident Kate Bilton recently went viral on social media in an Iranian and Irish dance mash up at a wedding in South Morang, Victoria.
Ms Biltons’s dance academy is often hired out for weddings but this was a new experience to perform alongside an Iranian drum solo.
“The bride asked us, ‘Would you think you’d be able to perform to some Middle Eastern drummers?’ I said straight away, absolutely,” she said.
“I don’t mind what it is, as long as it’s a drum and they can keep a good beat we will be able to dance to it.”
The viral TikTok video of Ms Bilton and her dance students went global overnight on 29 January, amassing over two million views after 48 hours on the platform.
The Irish Times shared the video along with several other viral online news sites.
Ms Bilton was shocked and delighted when her mobile phone began flooding in with notifications and messages from friends and family in the Irish dancing community.
“It’s fantastic – I had a lot of my friends in Ireland contacting me saying, Oh, we’ve seen you dancing on social media. It’s pretty cute,” she said.
Viral trends are never predictable and Ms Bilton has looked through some of the online comments to find out what people found so fascinating about the performance.
“People were really just blown away by the blend of the two cultures and especially two cultures that you wouldn’t see together very often.”
Ms Bilton has been Irish dancing since she was three years old and became a teacher at eighteen.
Her Aunt also runs an Irish dance school in Mt Evelyn and both were introduced to the dance form through Kate’s Irish grandmother.
In recent years the dance teacher has had to deal with many cancelled events due to the pandemic as she continued teaching dance lessons via Zoom during Covid, teaching from her back porch.
She recently won the 2021 Global Irish Dancing Teacher Award and the international award recognises excellence in teaching by honouring extraordinary dance teachers.
Ms Bilton began teaching in the Mornington Peninsula and had travelled overseas before returning to live in Healesville in 2007.
Her original dance school was based in Kinglake however, the hall she taught in there was affected during the Black Saturday fires.
“We had to take a short break after the Black Saturday fires because the hall that we were teaching out of actually sustained damage and that was a really tough time.
“As soon as I was allowed to go back up into Kinglake, we went back. I continued the classes for a number of years afterwards.
“It was valuable at that time to take something back to the community so that the kids could get back to their dancing lessons.”
This cross culture performance is not the first time Kate has mashed dance styles together, her school the Victorian Irish Dance Academy has been performing a cross culture number with the Glenbrae Celtic dance school from Glen Waverley dance school for over a year.
“We were very lucky to be invited to be part of a Scottish Irish cross culture dance show. That was a new show that had a mix of Irish dancing and Scottish dancing.
“We performed that show at a number of Celtic festivals and different events around Victoria.The crowd just really seemed to love the mix of the culture.”
Her Victorian Irish Dancing Academy school has since been in operation in other parts of the hills; it was in Emerald for sometime but more recently it has been operating out of Tecoma.
Irish dancing can be seen as a very traditional form of dancing but Ms Bilton encourages anyone to have a go. Her students range from three years old up to sixty five years old.
“I love Irish dancing. It brings a lot of joy to my life, but I love the joy that it brings to other people’s lives as well.
“A lot of people will start Irish dancing and it just has such a positive impact on their health and well being. It becomes a special part of their life.
“I’ve been really honoured to be able to bring that joy into other people’s lives through dance.
When asked if she will ever give it up – the reply was quick.
“I’m gonna dance forever. I will never stop. I love it. It’s my passion. I’m so lucky to have a job that I love so much and you’ll never want to give it up.”
