A Taste of Ireland

Four productions, hundreds of stages, over a third of a million followers and one global ambition with KMP Artists

In conversation with Brent Pace, Artistic Director of the A Taste of Ireland Company

Direct from acclaimed seasons Off-Broadway and London’s West End, the A Taste of Ireland Company is entering a new phase of international touring. Through a formal strategic alliance with KMP Artists, the company is expanding its presence across the United States and developing new touring opportunities in Mexico, Brazil, Asia, Europe and beyond.

Built around a portfolio of four productions – A Taste of Ireland, A Celtic Christmas, ÉIREANN and TARA – the company positions itself not as a niche cultural import, but as a contemporary Irish music and dance company designed for the demands of today’s touring market. Its productions span regional performing arts centres, major metropolitan theatres, festivals, municipal engagements and seasonal programming, offering presenters a range of scales and formats within a single touring brand.

The company has also built significant international momentum. Its current spring tour across the USA and Canada has produced multiple sold-out dates, while an Australian national tour from August to October 2026 will visit 37 locations, from Sydney to Perth. A Mexico premiere is planned for October 2026, with further touring development across Asia, Europe and Brazil for 2027–28.

At the centre of this expansion is an in-house structure covering operations, technical delivery, marketing, production management and touring logistics. For presenters, the company’s pitch is clear: high-energy Irish music and dance, delivered with artistic ambition, commercial experience and touring infrastructure.

The A Taste of Ireland Company positions itself not as a niche cultural import but as a high-energy international headlining attraction. What is it about the company’s approach to production and performance that makes that claim land with audiences night after night, and how does the company continue to push its own production values forward?

The reason A Taste of Ireland  lands with audiences is because the show is built to be alive in the room. Every percussive moment of Irish dance in the show is performed live, including a tap battle between the male dancers in Act Two that plays differently every single performance. Nothing about it is pre-set. The audience knows anything can happen and they get loud for it, and that energy carries the whole production.

The work itself does not sit still either. Between tours, the creative team returns to the room to rework choreography, refine the score and sharpen the storytelling. Returning audiences see a different show each season, and the artform moves forward because of that continual development.

This is also not a variety show. The Irish music and dance touring market sits heavily in the variety and tribute space, particularly across the UK, where presenters sometimes assume any new Celtic show is going to be more of the same. The company’s work is not. It carries the energy and live craic of a great night out, but it does so on a foundation of real artistic merit. Those two things are not at odds.

The production model has also been built with touring realities in mind. The set has been engineered to fly internationally, the soft goods move as checked baggage, and the show is designed to get in and out of a venue in a single show day. We maintain the same artistic standard whether we’re performing in a 500-seat regional centre or a 2,000-seat metropolitan house, without compromise.

The company’s portfolio has grown to four distinct productions: the flagship A Taste of Ireland, A Celtic Christmas, the large-scale ÉIREANN, and the newly launched TARA. How do you approach matching the right production to the right presenter, and what does TARA represent in terms of the company’s wider creative direction?

The portfolio has been built deliberately. Four productions, each with its own creative ambition and venue scale, all sit on the same foundation: high-level performers, the live energy of Irish music and dance, and a creative direction that wants to evolve the artform, not just tour it.

The starting point for any presenter conversation is fit. Venue capacity, audience, season window and what the booking is trying to achieve all matter. The portfolio has been designed so there is a right answer for most rooms, and the conversation is about identifying which production best serves that context.

TARA represents the company’s most progressive creative step. There is no other production in the genre where women hold the sole leading roles. Built around five female leads – the five Celtic goddesses – with a full female cast, it places the strength, power, athleticism and emotional range of female Irish dancers at the centre of the form. Billed as the world’s first all-female Irish dance production, it opens new creative ground in an artform that has carried the same gender hierarchy for generations.

Beyond the productions themselves, what outreach and community engagement programming does the company offer, and how important is that wider reach to how the company works with presenting venues and festivals?

Connection is one of the company’s core values, and outreach is one of the clearest places it shows up beyond the stage.

For venues and festivals partnering with the company, there is a programme available that includes learn-to-Irish-dance workshops with local dance schools and community dancers led by the principal cast, professional masterclasses pitched at studio level, and pre-show talks and post-show Q&As with the creative team. What is activated depends on the engagement and is scoped during the booking conversation around what makes sense for that market.

The reason it matters to venues and festivals is that it extends the cultural footprint of a booking beyond show night. It builds local advocacy ahead of the run, deepens audience engagement with the work, and can support a venue’s wider funding and stakeholder narrative.

It also reflects how the company thinks about the artform. Irish dance is a living form, and engaging with the next generation of dancers, audiences and storytellers in the cities the company visits is part of how it keeps evolving.

The company has the third largest social media following of any touring Irish dance company globally, behind only Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, and its casts draw on world and national champions as well as alumni from both productions. What does that pedigree mean for the standard of performance that presenters are booking, and how do you maintain it across simultaneous touring companies on different continents?

The cast a presenter is booking is consistent at the top end of the field. Former World and National Irish dance champions, alumni from the recent West End cast of ÉIREANN, and performers with experience in leading productions in the genre all form part of the company’s casting standard. That standard does not get diluted for scale. 

The company’s casting reach is global. Full international auditions are held every two years, with the previous round taking place across the United States and the next planned across the United Kingdom. That pipeline is part of how the company has grown into one of the largest Irish music and dance companies in the world, with a combined social following of more than 385,000 across platforms.

Production specifications may adapt to the market, but the artistic standard does not. Every company performs the same show to the same standard, wherever in the world it is being staged. The company has had three full touring companies on the road at once across three countries and typically operates one or two at any given time. Holding that consistency is both operational and artistic. Artistic direction sits with Brent Pace, as Artistic Director, while the principal dancers carry the choreographic and stylistic standard into each company. Repertoire and arrangements are tightly controlled throughout.

Alongside the artistic work, the in-house marketing team led by Producer Ceili Pace has sold millions of dollars in tickets across more than a decade of touring. Presenters also receive direct access to promote their season through the company’s audience channels, adding commercial weight behind the booking when it goes to market. Working with the company means working alongside that knowledge, not against it.

The practical effect is that the brand itself becomes the guarantee. Across continents, markets and venue scales, the audience is seeing the same standard of work, which is what allows the company to be a serious partner for venues and festivals putting their season, their budget and their audience on the line.

The current US and Canada spring tour has already produced multiple sold-out dates, with an extensive Australian national tour running from August until October 2026. The company operates with dedicated in-house operational, technical and marketing teams to ensure consistency across every market. What is driving that momentum, and what should a presenter understand about the company’s box office track record and production infrastructure?

The momentum is demand-driven, and demand is at a level the company has not seen before. The 2026 spring tour through the United States and Canada has performed strongly across multiple markets, while the Australian national tour from August to October 2026 will play 37 locations from Sydney to Perth.

Behind that demand sits the company’s production infrastructure. Operations, technical direction, production management, marketing and tour management all sit in-house. None of it is contracted out. That means anyone working with the company is working directly with the people who deliver the work, from first conversation through to load-out.

Technical specifications are realistic and honoured. Tour logistics are run by people who tour for a living, and marketing is run by a team with the commercial track record to back what it says. Existing partners across the company’s touring markets often say that kind of operating standard is rarer than it should be in international touring.

The company has built itself around that model deliberately. The work on stage only lands when the work off stage is doing its job.

The alliance with KMP Artists marks a significant step in the company’s international strategy, with premieres planned across Mexico, Brazil, Asia and Europe during the 2027–28 season. For presenters planning their 2027–28 season, what does having dedicated international representation in place mean in practical terms, and which territories or contexts are you most actively looking to develop?

The KMP Artists alliance marks the next chapter in the company’s international strategy. As one of the largest Celtic performing arts franchises in the world, the company has performed across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand over more than a decade, building the audiences, relationships and infrastructure that have brought it to this point.

The next phase has two parts: going deeper in existing markets with bigger cities and longer runs, and opening territories the company has not yet reached. The Americas beyond North America, continental Europe and Asia all represent important areas of development. 

KMP is the partner aligned with the company to open those doors. Dedicated international representation means a clear expert point of contact in each region, supported by KMP’s relationships, market knowledge and booking infrastructure. Partners in those territories receive the same back-of-house support as existing markets: tour management, technical coordination, marketing partnership and creative collaboration through the company’s in-house teams.

Alongside main-stage touring, the company is open to one-off municipal engagements, gala programming and major festival headlining slots in markets that standard routing might not otherwise reach. What the company is bringing into those markets is a portfolio of four productions designed for different cultural and venue contexts, supported by an established touring infrastructure and an existing international audience base.

For programmers reading this who are ready to explore what the A Taste of Ireland Company could bring to their stage or event, what does that initial conversation look like, and what is the best way to get it started?

The first conversation is a real conversation. Before a production is recommended or dates are discussed, the company wants to understand the venue, the audience, the season the booking is meant to sit within, and the cultural moment the presenter is trying to create.

From there, it is quick to map fit: which of the four productions matches the scale, which tour windows work for the calendar, and what the marketing and outreach partnership could look like in that market.

The conversations that move fastest are those where the venue or festival comes in with a clear sense of its season, its audience and the moment it wants to create. The company brings the productions, infrastructure and partnership; between those elements, the move from first conversation to a confirmed offer can happen within a few weeks.