Irish Dance in Latvia: Meet Rūta Kapustaite

The historical ties between Ireland and Latvia can be found in many cultural spaces, from our rich creative customs to our mutual musical traditions. While distinct, both cultures’ appreciation of the arts has long been a defining characteristic of our friendship.

More commonly known is our shared expressions of life, history, and community through music, with Latvia known for its rich dainas (folk songs) and Ireland in its vibrant session music and Celtic heritage, but a growing ‘grá’ [love] for Irish dance is following not far behind.

In Latvia’s capital, a thriving dance company, Ceili Rue, run by Rūta Kapustiate is pushing boundaries and building bridges by bringing Irish dance to Latvia’s shores.

Born in Kaunas, Lithuania but now living in Latvia, dance has always played a serious part in Kapustaite’s life. Read on to discover her journey to teaching Irish dance in Latvia, in her own words:

“When I was younger I was a professional dancer but I had to pause dancing for many years because of many life responsibilities – I was studying, working, my children were born. However, eventually I found my way back to it. It is impossible to describe in only a few sentences the passion I feel for dance in my life.

After pausing the dancing for a while, I was looking for a new job and turned out that it was dancing that actually helped me to get a very good position, the next step in life.”

“Later I continued with an idea to perform different dance styles, and in our program we had one Irish reel but soon it transpired that dancers really wanted to learn only Irish dances.

So, the idea to create a Ceili dance group is not completely mine - rather my students, especially one of them, Ieva. We all quickly fell in love with Riverdance but Ieva was the first who pushed me into the big ocean of Irish dance and culture.”

“So, now for almost 30 years I have been leading the Irish dance studio called Ceili Rue here in Latvia. We are the first and the oldest Irish dance studio in the Baltics.”

“One interesting story is how we got the name Ceili Rue. Our group was invited to perform in Norway together with musicians from Ireland, Norway, Greece, and England and it was during that trip that musicians from Ireland proposed the name Ceili Rue (Rue is Ruta in English).”

“So, from then on, all posters and ads carried the name Ceili Rue. Ceile Rue dancers have performed in Austria, Lithuania, France, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden.”

“Step by step we learned more about Irish culture, music, traditions and we shared this knowledge with our audience. We have met well-known Irish dance teachers, musicians, singers, dancers, actors, and even two Presidents of Ireland.

I was also invited by Riga choreography school to be an Irish dance teacher and choreographer. One of the school’s students actually performed in Riverdance.

Because of my passion for Irish dance, I’ve taught the Latvian National Opera ballet students and worked with the Latvian Dailes Theater on a play ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ by Martin McDonagh.”

“I also have different workshops in my dance sacvoyage. In my studio, I have taught deaf people, blind people, people with some physical restrictions, but nobody saw the limitations when my dancers were on the stage. Because of that, I have been invited to share my dance teaching method to persons with disabilities across Europe.

During almost 30 years I had been teaching dancers from Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Ireland, Japan, and China with whom we keep connection even now.

I always say that my dancers from different countries are the bridge in dance, art and the ocean of culture.”