Ceilidh and the Horde
‘Downsio guda’r hynafiaid.’
‘Dancing with the Ancestors.’ Ceilidh Ap-Farendar
A wild and melodic quickening is taking place. Street art, hauntingly primitive, with a raw and graceful animalism steeped in the bones and land of our collective past, is rising out of the West Country. The Horde, created by Ceilidh Ap-Farendar, is a highly eclectic troupe of individuals ——modern-day Celts and Others ——whose performances are witnessing a gathering of pace around.
Ceilidh in the Forest 2024 Ceilidh Ap-Farendar is many things ——a dancer and performer, a natural healer, a modern-day Celt, a traveller, a storyteller, and a behavioural scientist ——still, most of all ——she is a woman of the land and a protector of the forest. Born into a familial knowing amongst traveller folk, she spent a childhood on the road, living off grid and moving from place to place, performing as she went. She attributes her healing abilities to her DNA, sensibilities she has chosen to channel into more formal modes of study ——psychotherapy, Taoism and Medical Chi ——these now come together and merge with Ceilidh’s understanding of healing through performance and ceremony, ideas that form the basis for the Horde. She uses an innate ability to unleash and channel a raging inner fury ——with writing and performance choreography stemming from a primal scream, literally and metaphorically. Her connection to a Celtic past is umbilical, and her use of Cymraeg, the oldest language native to the British Isles from an ancient Celtic tongue, breaches time itself and forges a path back to an ancient world carried on The Horde’s modern song. The Horde are an eclectic mix of folk who bring their talents and individualism to Ceilidh’s vision and perform to honour the changing seasons with precision and artistry ——bones, body paint, headdresses and intricate detail ——make their attire at once elegant, dark and wholly primitive.
The connection to something ancient, a Celtic past that runs deep through our native lands resting just below the surface, is immediately attractive and familiar. Today, the Horde dance with the ancestors and successfully bridge the centuries between then and now. Performance that invites us to remember our roots and to ground ourselves in the healing of a primal lament. Guttural Cymraeg uttering cuts through our modern lives and brings us back to what is real, raw and powerfully female, a time of Warrior Queens and mysticism, when the land was a Goddess, her body the earth and her blood, the rivers and streams ——a time of bones, of fire and barefoot storytelling.
Tayah, Ceilidh & Finn - Clan Ap-Farendar. Behind the Scenes of Portrait of Beltane 2024
