Today I spent much of the afternoon at the CBC Radio studio in downtown Halifax volunteering as a set-dancing, Gaelic-singing, Gaelic-speaking extra for the forthcoming Gaelic short film from Opolo Pictures entitled, "Ruidhle an Fhìdhleir/The Fiddler's Reel. This was a post-production sound fill for part of the film that needed new material, including the sounds of feet step-dancing (hence the title of this post), the sounds of people clapping and encouraging a fiddler and step-dancer, additional singers for the chorus of a Gaelic love song (which most of us already knew) and 'walla' conversation in Gaelic.
The film premieres on September 18th at the Park Lane Empire in a block of films called 'Atlantic Shorts' and tells the tale of a mysterious fiddler who falls for a farmgirl in depression-era Cape Breton. It has won the National Screen Institute Drama Prize and stars Shannon MacDonald, Patrick Bennett (a talented performer and an all-around great guy), Angus MacLeod and Ted Hargrave.
In other news, tomorrow marks our one-year anniversary in Nova Scotia. Seems like we moved here yesterday, and seems like we've lived here all our lives.