Cut A Shine is a collective of musicians, dancers and callers who’ve been spreading their brand of rip roaring hoedown and barn dance music across the UK for over ten years. Conceived in the squat and warehouse parties of London, the band host square dances and ceilidh dances at venues across the capital, whilst spending the summer months darting from festival to festival raising a dust bowl of dance where ever they go. The line up includes Fiddle, Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin and Double bass – the classic “Bluegrass” line up. The show is augmented with flat foot dancers, eccentric and energetic dance callers, and singers, for an all round hoedown experience.
“Cut A Shine” is not a noun, rather, it is a verb: to Cut A Shine, and the origin, an old-world expression meaning to dance. Back in an era before the Internet, television or even electricity, the local dance would be the primary way of engaging with the wider world and your local community. One would don one’s Sunday Best and shine up those shoes real good, only to cut the shine through rigorous dancing. And therein lies the mission of this collective of musicians, dancers and callers – to get people to Cut A Shine and dance them old dances…and dance them with each other!
