Watch a ballet, contemporary or ballroom show anywhere in the world and chances are the component parts will be roughly similar. But the wonderful thing about traditional dance is that each country has its own individual style. So when the Traditional Dance Forum Of Scotland programmes its now annual international Pomegranates Festival (as part of Tradfest), you know to expect a fascinating cocktail of movement. 

A mix of professional workshops and public performances, Pomegranates celebrates the uniqueness of different cultures while searching for crossovers between them. Such as Edinburgh-based artists Ariana Stoyanova and Alexis Street, who were brought together by the Forum in 2021 to explore their respective passion for Bulgarian folk and Scottish Highland dance. The resulting duet, Thistles And Sunflowers Dance Fusion, will form part of a triple-bill alongside folk dancers from Germany and a new piece based on Chinese folk dance.

_{Picture: Wangxiu Cheng}

Cut open a pomegranate and you’ll find a multitude of seeds; much the same can be said for this festival. Alongside traditional dance is what Iliyana Nedkova, curator at the Traditional Dance Forum Of Scotland, calls ‘artforms galore’ including live music, film, poetry and visual art. ‘The seeds of live trad music that we planted last year have grown, and we now have a trad musician-in-residence, Jon Bews,’ says Nedkova. ‘We’ve invited performance poet Ian McMillan, who has a Scottish heritage, to also be one of our resident artists along with German-born contemporary visual artist Gabriel Schmitz, who studied at Edinburgh College Of Art.’

Nedkova recalls that in 2022, the festival embarked on a mission to explore connections between traditional dance and hip hop. ‘We felt that as our culture continues to diversify, so do the definitions of traditional dance, hip hop and Scottishness. So this year we’ve invited Kemono L Riot, who was born in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo and raised in Glasgow, to be our hip-hop dance artist-in-residence and choreograph our hip hop-themed festival finale.’

Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, Friday 28–Sunday 30 April.