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Arts Council of Ireland Festivals
Culture Ireland
Project Arts Centre
Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris
rish Arts Center, New York
Dublin City Council
Dance Ireland
Dance Limerick
Newstalk

In partnership with Culture Ireland, Dance Ireland, Project Arts Centre, Dance Limerick, Irish Arts Center, New York, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Ruairí Ó’ Donnabháin

BRISEADH (7:44m)
Video - Gabriel Bethencourt

briseadh is an acknowledgement. Its a choreographic moment of silence. You are the dancer here. There is much movement to be found in attempts at stillness. 

 

do mo dheartháir, a healthcare worker and all caregivers

we tried to have an explicit conversation about work and death. nílimíd fós ábalta é sin á dhéanamh and thats ok.

 

this is a silent film - there is presence to be felt in absence. 

briseadh is made up of hundreds of images of the Mercy Hospital in Cork,

this is the choreographic gesture. 

 

its a meditation for you from lockdown, 

for all the family visits through windows, 

the distance between the things between us

machnamh, 

 

on stepping out, 

on how to make dances in a pandemic, 

on trying to stay slow nuair a bhíonn rudaí ag luas, 

on thinking about memorial, 

on remembering, 

 

i’d like to have a conversation ach tá go leor rudaí nach féidir linn a rá, we can’t touch or move towards.

 

on grief 

on death 

on dying 

 

this is an intentional offer for you to take time to be with these images and to reflect on the conversation we are having and all the things we cannot say but are felt in our bodies.

Ruairí Ó’Donnabháin has been making dances in Ireland since 2008. He is a recent Masters in Choreography

Graduate from DAS Graduate School in Amsterdam. His choreographic practice is concerned with ‘aesthetic

practices of care’. He lives and works on Oileán Chléire, a remote island and Gaeltacht off the south west coast of Co. Cork. He has performed for Jennifer Walshe, Keith Hennessy and THEATREclub among others. His own work has toured across Europe, North America and Asia.

Darrah Carr, Darrah Carr Dance

DANCING THE CORAL SUITE (7:27m)
Dancers: Kendal Griffler, Caitlin Kelaghan, Trent Kowalik, Laura Neese, Melissa Padham-Maass, Alexandra Williamson

Music:  by Dana Lyn & Kyle Sanna – excerpts from “The Coral Suite” and “The Great Arc”

The Bessie Award-nominated Darrah Carr Dance reunites with fiddler Dana Lyn and guitarist Kyle Sanna for a musical and choreographic exploration of The Coral Suite, the trad duo’s concept album inspired by the reef’s miraculous biodiversity. Lyn and Sanna perform nuanced interpretations of traditional Irish music; artistic director Darrah Carr’s champion dancers perform in her trademark style of ModERIN, a unique blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance.

Darrah Carr is the Artistic Director of Darrah Carr Dance - a Bessie-Award nominated professional Irish dance company that specializes in ModERIN – a unique blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance.  Recent highlights include: Good Morning America, NBC’s The Today Show, a performance with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, The Duke Theater on 42nd Street, Celebrate Brooklyn, Victory Dance at the New Victory Theater.

Eileen McClory (with Conan McIvor), Off The Rails Dance Company

GRAVIDUS (5:51m)

Filmaker/video artist: Conan McIvor

An intimate dance film reflecting life in lockdown at 39 weeks’ pregnant. Navigating the new normal, the 3rd trimester, the shut-down, the social distancing, the appointments, the confined spaces, the incubating, the stretching skin, the rigid joints, the rigid laws, the panic, the panic buying, the physical boundaries, the physical limitations, the hormones, the nurturing, the detachment, the waiting, the repetition, repetition, repetition… The passing of time felt only through my growing tummy.

Eileen McClory has received commissions from Quotidian At the Margins 2021, Maiden Voyage Dance Company BRINK 2020, The Playhouse, Derry TURF 2019 and Tinderbox Theatre Company CUCK 2017. Under Off the Rails Dance #OTR Eileen has choreographed and produced The Dutiful Wife 2016, and S(3)nsored 2011 and received an Artist Career Enhancement Award from Arts Council NI in 2018.

Mary Wycherley

NO. 5 (RUPTURE) (3:10m)

Creator: Mary Wycherley

Sound: Jürgen Simpson

 

This is a body and a body of water from a body of work. 

no. 5 (rupture) emerges from recent revisits into my video archive and in correspondence with the flux of current times, it disrupts the choreography, light and cinematography. With sound by Jürgen Simpson.

Mary Wycherley is an Irish dance artist whose work spans contemporary dance performance, moving image and curation. She has a strong track record of collaborating with a range of artists and creating works which cross disciplinary boundaries. Her work is seen on stage, in galleries and cinematic contexts.  Mary’s body of work has toured and been exhibited in Ireland and internationally at venues and festivals including at Rua Red Gallery Dublin, VOID Derry, Museum of Contemporary Arts Shanghai, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Galway Film Fleadh, Dublin Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, National Museum of Contemporary Arts Bucharest, and Cork Film Festival. Mary is co-founder and curator of the Light Moves Festival of  Screendance since its inception in 2014. She was Limerick Dance Artist in Residence appointed by the Arts Council of Ireland from 2015-2019. Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts and an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance. Her national and international teaching in dance, film and interdisciplinary creative process spans University level, professional masterclass and individual mentoring contexts. Currently Mary is creating Weathering, a live performance installation integrating dance, visuals, voice and text to be presented at Project Arts Centre and Dance Limerick in 2021, funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and Limerick City and County Council. 

Fiona Quilligan

HERON (5:04m)

Choreographer/Director: Fiona Quilligan

Film & Editor: Marek Bogaki 

Assistant Camera: Marcelo Biglia

Performed by: Maria Nilsson Waller

In 2011 Choreographer|Director  Fiona Quilligan and filmmaker Marek Bogacki explored archival material of the Shannon Scheme creating a work called Paper Pylons which was performed at the historical site of Wood Quay.  An installation experienced through overlapping images where aspiration, effort and steadfastness run in parallel to dance and film sequences.

 

Central to this was the making of Heron with filmmaker Marek Bogacki, which became an integral part of the dance work. It seemed natural that I was also drawn to the bird life of the Shannon River and I spent many hours observing what seemed to be an aging Heron on its banks. The extended movement of the Heron is seen in a continuous flow of energy as the dancer embodies the downward fall of water over a weir. Heron was part of a Paper Pylons, a Dance Installation at Wood Quay.

Heron

What are you doing up there?

Perched there with your shaggy feathers hanging long.

I can see you there sitting high,

a slow ascent ugly in breast

long legged you unfold your wing.

Navigating between the trees

you eye up the river runway

before making a landing.
(Text Fiona Quilligan)

Fiona Quilligan, award-winning choreographer, born in Dublin, trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance and from 1982-86 performed with Dublin City Ballet. In 1986, she founded Rubato Ballet, and created original works which received high critical acclaim, the Nijinsky medal from Warsaw and AIB Better Ireland Award in Arts and Culture. In 2014 Fiona received an MA in performance from the University of Limerick.

Ingrid Nachstern

FREEDOM -TO GO! (8:33m)

Director, Choreographer, Script, Performer: Ingrid Nachstern

Cinematographer: Luca Truffarelli

Assistant: Michele Ragni

Performers: Michael Cooney & Lucia Kickham

Music: Luminitza -composed by Alexander Balanescu and performed by The Balanescu Quartet

Titleist: Stefano Baldinelli

Sound: Gabriele Paperini

Wardrobe: Emma Downey (Mermaid Costume) Alison Finn (Lucia Kickham’s blouse)

Location Manager: Miriam Duffy

Ingrid Nachstern is a director, choreographer, screenwriter and dancer. In 2014 she moved into filmmaking and has directed 3 films, all of which have been screened internationally and won several awards (Shoe Horn/Office won Best Experimental Film at Los Angeles Movie Awards 2019). Nachstern has performed in New York at MoMA, Lincoln Center, Barcelona, Dublin and Buenos Aires. She founded Night Star Dance.

Mufutau Yusuf

OBSERVATIONS

Performance and text: Mufutau Yusuf 
Drum: Matti Paalanen 
Saxophone:  MusicByPedro 
Sound: RV 
Director:  Davide Belotti

Commissioned by Irish Arts Center

This moment. All movements stop. Fingertips suspended. Eyes quiver with uncertainty. 

The walls close in like clockwork. Events unfold like clockwork. Hysteria follows like clockwork. 

Flesh becomes cinders, face becomes barren, memories become a hazard. 

Dawn fades into dusk, apathy remains staunch. The sound of the breeze, imperceptible from the cry for freedom. 

Battles of echoes and monotonous whispers. Waves of uneasiness, lapping against these solitary walls. 

When does it all end? 

 

This short dance film is inspired by some of my observations during the last few months. First instigated by the spread of the covid-19 then unfolding into the recent but familiar case of systemic racism in the US. The most recurring motif in these observations seems to be the notion of confinement, in various forms.

Nigeria-born Irish dancer Mufutau Yusuf joined Dublin Youth Dance Company at 16 and two years later performed with Irish Modern Dance Theatre in Fall and Recover, the first of many works with the company. He graduated from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) in 2016. Mufutau also develops his own work and is currently working with Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez.

Junk Ensemble

FALLOW TABLE (no longer available)

Created and Directed by: Jessica Kennedy, Megan Kennedy, Luca Truffarelli

Director of Photography / Editing: Luca Truffarelli

Composition: Denis Clohessy

Fallow Table is a playful and surreal short dance film created by Junk Ensemble and Luca Truffarelli. The work examines the idea of duality and self-burial during a fallow period. It is a funeral for the self that ends with a party.

The film phases through a preparation for mourning along the steep steps of Mount Brown, a funeral feast in a Rathmines laneway, and ends with a party in Inchicore railway works with streamers and balloons strewn across the abandoned car park.

The concept grew out of this current time when much of the world is waiting or resting, resembling land that is left fallow - the soil is left to ‘rest’ so that it recovers it fertility. Perhaps through this burial, or purge, we will renew ourselves. Fallow Table ends with a funeral party; a celebration, a moving towards hope and the future, and a recognition of the things we have lost along the way.

Junk Ensemble was founded in Dublin in 2004 by twin sisters Megan and Jessica Kennedy.  The company is committed to engaging diverse audiences through the creation and presentation of brave, imaginative and accessible work that sheds light on human issues relevant to society today. Current Project Arts Centre Associate Artists & Dance Artists-in-Residence at Firkin Crane and previous Artists-in-Residence at The Tate.

TALK BACK WITH CHOREOGRAPHERS HOSTED BY CATHERINE THARIN

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Áine Stapleton

HORRIBLE CREATURE (108:15m)

Director: Áine Stapleton

Director of Photography: Will Humphris

Soundtrack: David Best and Ed Chivers

Cast: Michelle Boulé, Céline Larrère, and Sarah Ryan

In 1915, James Joyce and Nora Barnacle traveled with their young children Giorgio and Lucia to Switzerland to escape the turmoil of World War I. Lucia later trained as a dancer and performed throughout Europe. Her dance career ended in the early 1930s and she was forced into psychiatric care. She underwent treatment at various hospitals across Europe for approximately 47 years, until her death in 1982. 

Horrible Creature is filmed at locations in Switzerland where Lucia spent time. Here, Lucia’s own writing, interpreted by a cast of international dance artists, conjures her world between 1915 and 1950. The film fearlessly explores her difficult family life, her unproven illness, and her undoubted talent.

Áine Stapleton works in dance, film, and music. She has been developing work about Lucia Joyce, daughter of Irish writer James Joyce, since 2014. She is currently creating a choreographed installation based on Lucia Joyce, and recently received funding to research her third feature film about Lucia in Northern Italy.

Tobi Omoseto

FALSE EMOTIONS APPEARING REAL (1:55m)

Music Composed by: Sly "Akewiii" Sode

The response to False Emotions Appearing Real is said to be a fight or flight response. This is an exploration of the responses available to me at that present moment.

Tobi Omoseto is an internationally acclaimed B-boy (breakdancer) and Hip-Hop Freestyle dancer. Training at Broadway Dance Centre & The birth place of Hip-Hop - New York, Tobi has been dancing for over 15 years and is dedicated to supporting the foundations of this dynamic and influential dance form.

As curator and director of hugely popular TOP 8 at Dublin Dance Festival, Tobi consistently delivers the best of Irish and International street dance to new audiences. Now heading into it’s 6th year, the event continues to grow in size and popularity, drawing huge numbers of both old/young dancers to the festival.

As a dance facilitator Tobi has designed and delivered youth programmes for Dance Ireland, Dublin Dance Festival, Waterford Youth Art, Lioas Dance Platform, Cork, Tipperary, Carlow and Dance limerick. Teaching in schools, youth groups and established dance organizations, he has brought his knowledge of Hip-Hop and breakin into a wide variety of youth and academic contexts. In 2016 he was invited to share his experiences as part of Dance Ireland’s - Dance Talks.

He has performed his own work at Imagine Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Limerick Fringe Festival, Whats Next Festival, Loias Dance Platform, Glor Performance Platform and at Dance2Connect among other festivals and events. On screen he has performed on Sky’s Got to Dance, hit US TV show Penny Dreadful and in numerous music videos and commercials.

Tobi has worked with some of Ireland’s leading choreographers including David Bolger, as part of the core ensemble for the 1916 Easter Rising Commemorations in Croke Park (TG4 & Tyrone Production LAOCHRA), Catherine Young, Libby Steward and most recently Tobi joined Lucia Kickham in the studio at Dance Ireland as part of Lucia’s Hatch residency research for - INIT: The Warm Up Project.

Isabella Oberlander

GLISTEN – A DIGITAL EXTRACT (5:50m)

Unlocking hierarchies and conversing with aliens - Glisten - What does it take to imagine a realm for multitude - a speculative future?
Alienation, otherness and sweaty dancing

Glisten is an inquiry into what is already felt but not yet visible. It is a performative exploration, deeply rooted in the dancing body. It strives to excavate how the experiences, reality and imagination of otherness manifest in the physical. Embracing the provocations of the Xenofeminist manifesto, it offers an invitation to imagine multiple visions of a non-binary speculative future.

Isabella Oberländer is a dance artist, who engages with cross-disciplinary settings and choreographic processes that embrace the advocacy of the dancing body. All the while working to explore a visceral articulation of physicality and thought. Oberländer’s practice is guided by on-going fascination with identity/intersectional feminist politics, performativity and spatial relationships.

Ryan O’Neill & Conan McIvor

CHRYSALIS (6:22m)

Creators: Ryan O’Neill & Conan McIvor

Commissioned by Maiden Voyage Dance, NI

Performer: Ryan O’Neill

 

Chrysalis is the result of a Match Make collaborative commission for dance artist Ryan O’Neill and video artist Conan McIvor.

Match Make is a Maiden Voyage Dance lockdown commissioning initiative. Match Make paired 8 dance artists and 8 artistic collaborators to work together (but apart) on short digital commissions during the pandemic lockdown.

Maiden Voyage are Belfast’s contemporary dance commissioning company and have offered discoveries in dance with, by and for artists, audiences and participants since 2002.

Ryan O’Neill has a first-class honours dance degree from UU and MA Performance at Laban Trinity. Ryan has performed with Maiden Voyage Dance, Liz Roche Company, Oona Doherty, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Junk Ensemble, Gwyn Emberton and spent two years with Punchdrunk in Shanghai. He is based in Belfast.

DANCER from the DANCE: Livestreamed Film Screening Programme
Thursday 2 July 7:30pm IST/8:30Ppm CET/2:30pm EST

 

Followed by a live post-performance talkback with Catherine Tharin | 8:30pm IST/9:30pm CET/3:30pm EST

Catherine Tharin: Curator, choreographer, teacher, dancer. Dance and performance curator, 15 years, 92Y NYC. February 2020 showed her dances and taught in Mexico City. Dancer with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company for eight years. Curating a voting rights dance platform, legacy dances (before 1955) by women, Battery Dance Festival, broadcast August 18. 

Stay strong, with love. 

* Please note the live post- performance talkback will open in a new stream which can be readily accessed on the You Tube or Facebook  homepages.

 

Incidental Music: 'Concrete Rain' composed by Michael Scott

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