Accademia Danze Irlandesi
Gens d'Ys
Since 1993 Gens D’Ys means Irish dance in Italy.Originated by a group of friends belonging to a Youth Cultural Association in Busto Arsizio (a small city north west of Milan) enthusiastic about Celtic traditions, it soon became the first and sole Italian Academy for the traditional dances of the “emerald isle”.
After quite a few years, thanks to many new members, to professional classes held by Michael Dillon and Sheila Bremer and especially thanks to the excellent coaching of Sinead Venables, ex-Irish dance World champion, Gens D’Ys today is a major presence in our Country, with eight locations and several cooperation agreements with Public Institutions, Schools, Associations and Corporations.
Throughout the years, thousands of students could approach Irish Dance thanks to the classes and the stages held by the Academy.
The range of the dances performed goes from traditional group and solo dances (Ceili and Step), to new Irish style, following the success of shows such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance.
This developments inspired the group to eventually create the original musical “The legend of Ys”, an absolute first of his kind in Italy.
As Gens D’Ys, we danced in Milan, Rome, Genoa, Bologna, Verona, Aosta, Trieste, Viterbo, and hundreds of other towns, and we still have great memories of the warm welcomes and the enthusiastic audiences!
Festivals in which we took part include: Celtica - Val d'Aosta, The Celtic New Year festival in Milan, Rimini meeting, Insubria, Fairylands, Celtival, Patavium, Trigallia, Montelago and many others, not forgetting the ones we organize ourselves, such as BustoFolk in Busto Arsizio.
We also danced in France (Chamonix and in the squares of Alsace), and in Germany (Friburg).
We are proud we danced with a lot of famous international groups such as The Chieftains (four shows in the December 2003 tour) Altan, Dervish, Lunasa, Eileen Ivers, Liam O'Connor, Craob Ruah, Kareen Tweed from Ireland, Tannahill Weavers and Burach from Scotland, Skolvan from Brittany, Mabon from Galles, Carlos Nunez from Galicia.
With respect to Italian bands, it would be easier to list the few that we unfortunately haven't yet had the pleasure to perform with.
We have to mention our friends: LusMor (now international stars), Polverfolk (we shared many stages when we started), Birkin Tree and the great Inis Fail band with whom we cooperate frequently.
Furthermore, we appeared on many TV shows, either on national (RAI1, RAI2, RAI3, Canale5, Rete4) or local (Antenna 3, Rete 55, TeleLombardia, and more) channels.
The strong passion for Irish Dance creates the link between tradition and innovation.
The great friendship between the members of the Show Team is central for the group itself.
