Art Form: Traditional percussive dance

Location(s): Lansing (Ingham County) and Atlantic Mine (Houghton County)

Nic Gareiss

Portrait of Nic Gareiss, photo by Krysta Brayer

Nic Gareiss dancing at Wheatland Music Festival, photo by Michael Erlewine

Nic Gareiss is a dancer, musician, and dance researcher currently residing in Lansing, Michigan. From his early childhood, Nic has been involved with traditional music and dance through the Wheatland Music Organization, based in Remus, Michigan. It was there that he met Sheila Graziano (Michigan Heritage Awardee 2023, MTAAP mentor artist 2013, 2014, 2017), who instructed him in his first Appalachian clogging workshop. Nic also credits 2016 Michigan Heritage Awardees and central Michigan residents the Costabella Cloggers as some of his first regular teachers. After this initial introduction to traditional dance forms, he continued to expand his knowledge and experience through participation in workshops, festivals, and camps, such as Dance Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia. At age sixteen, he moved to Maryland to apprentice under Eileen Carson-Schatz, a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellow, and to perform with her company, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble. Nic travelled to Montreal in 2008 to begin an ongoing collaboration and mentorship with dancer Sandy Silva. In his twenties, Nic spent time in Ohio for the purpose of studying under Sharon Leahy and performing in her company, Rhythm in Shoes.

Nic then furthered his study of traditional music and dance in an academic setting, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology with a minor in music from Central Michigan University in 2005, and a Master of Arts of ethnochoreology (dance ethnology and ethnography) from the University of Limerick in 2012. During this time, he studied Cape Breton step dance with Mats Melin, Irish sean-nós dance with Seosamh Ó Neachtain, and Irish step dancing with Colin Dunne who was a former lead dancer in the internationally-acclaimed show Riverdance. While in graduate school, Nic returned to Michigan and helped found the Earful of Fiddle Music and Dance Camp in 2008. He received Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship awards in 2016 and 2017 to instruct apprentice Emily Doebler in percussive dance. In 2018-2019, Nic was artist-in-residence at the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and School of Scottish Studies.

Now living in Lansing, he continues to travel the country and the world performing, teaching, and collaborating with such artists as Liz Carroll, Caleb Teicher, Martin Hayes, This is How we Fly, and Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas.

- Micah Ling, 2020

Carrie Dlutkowski

Carrie Dlutkowski first came to percussive dance through the fiddle, which she began playing at age 5. While her initial training was in classical music, she joined a folk and traditional music group called White Water at age 14 which shaped her playing greatly. The band's leaders Bette and Dean Premo became important mentors for Carrie as carriers of the musical traditions of her home region of the Western Upper Peninsula. Through the group's performances at local social dances, Carrie observed dances such as square and contra dances, schottisches, polkas, mazurkas, and waltzes. From this early age, Carrie was aware of the intrinsic links between fiddle-driven musical traditions and participatory dance. She pursued this understanding through attending various summer music camps in the United States and Ontario, Canada, and brought this back to her performing with White Water. She learned Canadian old-time tunes as well as "Celtic-influenced fiddle music" and added them to her solo repertoire.

At age 18, Carrie first was introduced to Ottawa Valley step dancing in Ontario at the Leahy Music Camp. She attended from 2012-2015 and learned from premier practitioners of the form like Kerry and Julie Fitzgerald. To continue building her skills, Carrie spent significant time learning online through instructional videos from her camp instructors and YouTube videos of other performers. Carrie is excited to continue to expand both her percussive dance repertoire and her knowledge of the histories of these dance forms.