The title was inspired by a BBC news article about a Portuguese law allowing descendants of Jews expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries to return and claim citizenship.
Apparently a few families who took refuge in Istanbul still have keys to the houses in Lisbon that they were forced to leave centuries ago.
These keys have been passed down as family heirlooms.
For more details see
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Turning_Portuguese
.
Those keen on symbolism can imagine the six dancers starting at the points of a Star of David and that the hands across and turns represent keys in locks.
The tune,
Da Slockit Light
, was written by fiddler Tom Anderson as a lament for the lights of houses in Shetland being extinguished as people moved away. It seemed an appropriate choice.
This dance also provides an opportunity to thank several people that I know in Lisbon: firstly Adriana Duarte for organising the Curia weekends; also
Isabel Monteiro
and
Isabel Neves
for devising lovely dances; and Barbara Gray, Joana Ferreira, Roger Picken and Sue Willdig for running the Carcavelos, Lapa and Telheiras SCD groups.