“Cut open a pomegranate and you’ll find a multitude of seeds; much the same can be said for this annual dance and arts festival…expect a fascinating cocktail of movement.“ THE LIST
Established in 2022, Pomegranates is Scotland’s springtime festival sowing the seeds and sequins of world trad dance across the country. Every year Pomegranates becomes a platform for our diverse Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland members to teach, learn and perform. In addition, the festival provides a wider public showcase for the range of our artists’ residencies and dance theatre productions open to new and returning audiences, including families and young people.
Pomegranates is part of our advocacy for the vibrancy and visibility of Scottish and world trad dance practised across the country as part of our global intangible heritage. At Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, we advocate and support through free membership and three major routes – residencies, productions and festivals, such as Pomegranates.
Initiated and curated by us at Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, Pomegranates is produced in collaboration with our major partners TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), Moray House School of Education and Sport and DannsEd, both at the University of Edinburgh and our home – the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
For the festival edition in 2024 we also collaborated also with Edinburgh Libraries, Dance Base, Edinburgh Chinese Community School, the Bulgarian Educational and Cultural Centre Scotland, the Ukrainian Kids Club in Edinburgh, Kvity Ukrainy – the Ukrainian Dance Company of Edinburgh and three primary schools across the city – Abbeyhill, Royal Mile and the Gaelic medium school. The festival season in 2024 started on 24 February 2024 with a series of related events and culminated in the long festival weekend 25-30 April 2024.
Social dance session: beginners
24 FEBRUARY 2024
Stockbridge Library
FREE
Registration required
Try the energetic Pizzica pizzica with dance tutor Lara Russo and friends from Italian Folk Connections and the Badwills!
Social dance session: beginners
28 FEBRUARY 2024
Stockbridge Library
FREE
Registration required
Enjoy a spot of Garba – a Gujarati dance led by Apeksha Bhattacharyya and accompanied by Gourab Dey.
Podcast
8 MARCH 2024 ON
Worldwide online
FREE
Spotify login required
Hear Pat Ballantyne and Helen Russell share stories of the ‘bonny fechters’ of Scottish trad dance.
Podcast
8 MARCH 2024 ON
Worldwide online
FREE
Spotify login required
Tune in! Our podcast host Eleanor SInclair talks to Caroline Brockbank of CeilidhKids + Natasha Khamjani and Kerry Fletcher of Folk Dance Remixed.
Social dance session: beginners
9 MARCH 2024
Stockbridge Library
FREE
Registration required
Try Old Time dancing – probably the most endangered Scottish dance style, but worth resurrecting. With Pia Walker and Bernie Hewitt.
Social dance session: beginners
13 MARCH 2024
Stockbridge Library
FREE
Registration required
Spring into Lindy Hop – a swing dance from the 1930-40s founded by Black American communities. With Rob Armitage and friends.
Social dance session: beginners
23 MARCH 2024
Stockbridge Library
FREE
Registration required
Expore the origins of American Line and sample the dances with Angel Godwin and Rachel Petyt.
Exhibition
3-30 April 2024
Edinburgh Central Library
FREE
No need to book in advance
Browse trad dance books and artifacts handpicked from public and private collections.
Craft Workshop
10 April 2024 6pm
Edinburgh Central Library
FREE
Registration required
Try heritage crafts associated with trad dance with festival artist-in-resident Mare Tralla.
Workshop
17 April 2024 6pm
Edinburgh Central Library
FREE
Registration required
Try heritage crafts associated with trad dance with festival artist-in-resident Mare Tralla.
12 Workshops for Dance Artists
20 April 2024 9am-5pm
St Leonard’s Land Dance Studio
FREE
Registration required
Advance your professional development with ace tutors and live music. Attend in-person.
12 Workshops for Dance Artists
20 April 2024 9am-5pm BST
Livestream
FREE
Registration required
Advance your professional development with ace tutors and live music. Join online.
Exhibition
23-30 April 2024
Scottish Storytelling Centre Court
FREE
No need to book in advance
Preview this sustainable fashion exhibition by Alison Harm of Psychomoda and explore the role of tartan in trad dance.
Presentation
25 April 2024 11am
Scottish Storytelling Centre Court
FREE
Registration required
Help us bring Europe’s largest festival of trad dance to Scotland and meet Ruediger Hess, Europeade President.
Fashion, Dance and Music
25 April 2024 7pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre Court
FREE
Registration required
Preview the exhibition and enjoy a new fashion and dance show set to live music with 20 performers.
FULLY BOOKED
Sharing and Reception
26 April 2024 5.30pm
Dance Base
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Meet Marianella Desanti at the end of her Trad Dance Residency exploring her Costa Rican dance heritage.
Walk and Talk Tour
27 April 2024 11am
Meet at Scottish Storytelling Centre
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Learn about the local folk dance traditions and the Scottish Court with storyteller extraordinaire Donald Smith.
Walk and Talk Tour
27 April 2024 2pm
Meet at Scottish Storytelling Centre
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Find out about the dancing mistresses who frequented Georgian Edinburgh with dance historian Alena Shmakova.
Dance Theatre Show
27 April 2024 7.30pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Experience a dance poem–homage to Hamish Henderson, lamenting the lives lost in the World War II.
Social Dance Session
27 April 2024 8.30pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Swing to sets of Lindy Hop with our dance musicians-in-residence from Castle Rock Jazz Band.
Dance Theatre Show
28 April 2024 10-11am
Scottish Storytelling Centre
FREE
Registration required
Sample a wee show devised by pupils and performed by students asking if junk food should be allowed at school?
Family Ceilidh
28 April 2024 11-11.45am
Scottish Storytelling Centre
FREE
Registration required
Peel the bannana? Just one of the moves in the big hoolie called by Caroline Brockbank of CeilidhKids.
World Trad Dance Sharings
28 April 2024 2-4pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre
FREE
Registration required
See pupils and Pomegranates dance artists-in-residence at primary schools across Edinburgh take the stage.
Triple Bill Show
29 April 2024 7pm
Scottish Storytelling Centre
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Booking required
Celebrate International Dance Day with our residents Jim Mackintosh, Mare Tralla and Jonzi D, plus 20 dancers.
Keynote Talk
30 April 2024 10am
Paterson’s Land Lecture Theatre
FREE
Registration required
Join our Hip Hop artist-in-residence Jonzi D to find out how to decolonise the curriculum. Attend in-person.
Keynote Talk
30 Apr 2024 10am BST
Livestream
FREE
Registration required
Join our Hip Hop artist-in-residence Jonzi D to find out how to decolonise the expressive arts curriculum. Join online.
Craft Workshop
30 April 2024 6pm
Edinburgh Central Library
FREE
Registration required
Try heritage crafts related to trad dance with festival artist-in-resident and craft activist Mare Tralla.
Pomegranates 2024 festival of international traditional dance is initiated, curated and produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland in partnership with TRACS, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. The Pomegranates Festival is funded by TRACS, Creative Scotland through the Traditional Dance Target Fund, City of Edinburgh Council through the Warm and Welcoming Fund, The William Syson Foundation and Scottish Community Alliance through the Pockets and Prospects Fund.
TRACS (Traditional Arts & Culture Scotland SC043009) brings together the Traditional Music Forum (SC042867), the Scottish Storytelling Forum (SC020891) and the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland (SC045085), all of which are Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations with their office at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR. The Scottish Storytelling Centre is a partnership project between the Storytelling Forum and The Church of Scotland (SC011353).
