Today, Friday 22 May, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland announced details of a new dance triple bill, celebrating a wealth of traditional dance styles from across the Commonwealth.
The triple bill, called Common Ground after the main commissioned piece, will take place as part of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Festival (23 May to 9 August). It includes two world premieres and involves an ensemble of over 25 dancers and choreographers – most with Commonwealth heritage. The show runs for one night only on 25 June at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.
The main commissioned piece, Common Ground, fuses contemporary traditional dance performed by nine hand-picked Scotland-based dancers, accompanied live by Scottish musician Lucy Allan. Co-choreographed by dance artists Nicholas Shoesmith and Sotirios Panagoulias, the work celebrates the Commonwealth dance cultures each dancer embodies. Asking, what happens when these diverse embodiments meet? And, through the universal need for movement, where can we find common ground?
The triple bill also includes a solo by the virtuoso percussive dancer Nic Gareiss – one of Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch’ and Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland artist-in-residence 2018-19 – who blends footwork, speaking and song, sharing step dance rhythms from the Appalachian mountains, as well as from the Scottish Highlands, Ireland’s Sliabh Luachra (Rushy Mountain) region and St. George’s Hill, in England.
Rounding out the programme is Drift – a thought-provoking piece on ocean overfishing, choreographed by the 2014-25 Scottish Ballet First Artist Madeline Squire and performed by over 15 dancers undertaking their MSc Dance Science and Education at the University of Edinburgh. Drift reminds us that the 25 Commonwealth Small Island Developing States face sea-level rises and the subsequent loss of dance cultures and traditions.
The work showcased in this triple bill carries memory, joy and resilience from across the Commonwealth and is being presented as part of the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland’s fifth Pomegranates Festival which celebrates Scottish traditional dance, alongside world traditional dance practised by New Scots and cultural migrant communities across Scotland.
This triple bill (Common Ground, Nic Gareiss and Drift) will be performed for one night only on 25 June 2026 at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. Details of other events taking place across Glasgow, as part of the fifth Pomegranates Festival of world traditional dance accompanying Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, are to be announced.
Wendy Timmons and Iliyana Nedkova, Curators and Producers of Pomegranates Festival said: “We’re taking Pomegranates on the road from Edinburgh for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games – and we’re starting with a bang. Common Ground is everything we love about Pomegranates: virtuoso artists, deep cultural connections and dance that speaks directly to the world we live in. Mountains, oceans and the shared steps that unite us. Come celebrate the Pomegranates Festival’s fifth birthday with us and help us send this love letter to the Commonwealth’s dance traditions, past and present. One night, three world‐class acts and a stage full of joy. No chance to blink – you might miss a heel‐click, a toe-tap or a wave of dancers.”
Curated, commissioned and produced by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, Common Ground triple bill is funded by Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund through a consortium of Glasgow Life, Glasgow City Council, sportscotland and Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026. Additional support from the Dance Research Scotland (DaReS) network, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, The Work Room, Theiya Arts and Andrew Coleman.
For tickets and more information visit https://www.tdfs.org/pomegranates/ Triple Bill Full Details:
NIC GAREISS (World Premiere)
The programme opens with a journey up the high places with Nic Gareiss – one of Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch’ and virtuoso percussive dancer who was the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland 2018-2019 artist-in-residence. In this solo which blends footwork, speaking and song, Gareiss shares step dance rhythms from the Appalachian mountains (ranging from Nova Scotia through Québec, south to the Blue Ridge in the United States) as well as from the Scottish Highlands, Ireland’s Sliabh Luachra (Rushy Mountain) region, and St. George’s Hill in
England. Blurring the boundaries between sound and gesture, dancer and musician, Gareiss offers a singular blend of traditional dance, text and song, mapping the cadence of these knolls, peaks and hollers.
DRIFT
The triple bill continues with Drift, a haunting ensemble piece fresh from its premiere at the Edinburgh Science Festival 2026. Choreographed by Madeline Squire, First Artist with Scottish Ballet 2014-2025, it is inspired by the complex structures of coral reefs. Dancers weave their limbs together, competing for space as their environment shrinks – mirroring how marine life becomes displaced when its habitat is destroyed. The work serves as a reminder that the Commonwealth small island states, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana and Jamaica, are facing disproportionate threats not only from overfishing and sea-level rise, but the subsequent loss of dance cultures and traditions.
COMMON GROUND (World Premiere)
After celebrating the common wealth of mountains and oceans and their remarkable capacity for cooperation and renewal, the programme concludes with the world premiere of Common Ground. Co-choreographed by Nicholas Shoesmith and Sotirios Panagoulias, this brand new ensemble piece fuses traditional dance styles from across the Commonwealth – from the grounded pulses of South African Gumboot and the swirling grace of Indian Bhangra, to the syncopated patterns of Caribbean Reggae and the precision of the Scottish Highland Fling. With live music from Lucy Allan and a company of Scotland-based dancers, each with Commonwealth heritage, this is contemporary tradition at its most powerful. It brings inherited Commonwealth movement vocabularies into shared space – not to erase differences but to find the harmonies. The stage becomes a ceilidh-gathering where every accent, gesture and rhythm is like a stepping stone, paving the common ground that connects us all.
About Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland
Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland (TDFS) is the national organisation that celebrates the diversity of traditional dance forms practised across Scotland. TDFS champions the living dance heritage of New Scots, cultural migrants and diaspora communities alongside Scotland’s own traditions – from Scottish Country and Ceilidh to Scottish Step and Highland dance. Through commissioning, producing and curating programmes such as the annual Pomegranates Festival, TDFS works to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, support traditional dance practitioners at all career stages and create meaningful platforms for cross-cultural dialogue. TDFS is a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation SCIO SC045085 with nearly 300 registered members and over 2,000 subscribers. For more information visit www.tdfs.org.
About Pomegranates Festival
Pomegranates Festival is Scotland’s annual festival dedicated to world traditional dance. It celebrates and safeguards the living dance heritage of New Scots, cultural migrants and diaspora communities alongside Scotland’s own traditions – from Ceilidh to Zaouli. Since 2022 each spring, the Festival has been transforming Edinburgh into a curated trail of performances, exhibitions, workshops, social dances and film screenings. For four years, it has been re-defining what traditional dance means in the 21st Century. To mark the fifth festival edition Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland is doing something different – curating a series of pop-up festival events accompanying Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, starting with Common Ground triple bill. Recognised as one of Scotland’s ListHot100 most influential cultural events, Pomegranates is where tradition meets innovation, where every dancer’s story matters. For more information visit https://www.tdfs.org/pomegranates/
About Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Festival
Running from 23 May to 9 August 2026, the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Festival will transform the city into a summer‐long cultural showcase. Inspired by the Games themselves, the Festival features outdoor performances, community celebrations, innovative arts, music and installations – creating an exciting build‐up to the Games and continuing after the final medal has been awarded. Developed and delivered by Glasgow Life in collaboration with Glasgow 2026, and made possible thanks to funding from Commonwealth Sport, the Festival invites audiences to discover something new, feel something powerful and be part of something big. At its heart, the Festival is about connection – coming together to explore the rich culture, creativity and heritage of communities from Glasgow and across the Commonwealth. For more information visit https://www.glasgow2026.com/get-involved/about-festival
Image: Drift, which will feature as part of a triple bill of dance productions presented by TDFS as part of this year’s Pomegranates Festival at the Citizens Theatre on Thursday, 25 June. Image courtesy of Madeline Squire.