Sibéal Davitt (choreographer and performer) with Úna Monaghan (harp and electronics)

A combination of Irish traditional music, traditional and contemporary dance, and live interactive electronics. We are exploring the potential for Sibéal as a dancer to impact the sound as well as responding to it. This performance is part of an ongoing collaboration in which we consider the development of our music and dance; a mixture of fixed and improvised sound and choreography.

This performance features a piece Úna wrote for west Kerry accordion player and singer Seamus Begley in Ballyferriter in February 2011. She had spent a whole day and a whole night playing tunes with Seamus, and wound her way home to Tigh Uí Mhurchú with bleeding fingers at about 8 in the morning, writing this to keep her awake. Seamus died in 2023 and had an extraordinary impact on Irish traditional music.

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Short Works by the BA Irish Dance at the University of Limerick students: Orla Shannon - 4th Year; Orielle O'Donnell - 2nd year; Aisha Assad - 2nd Year

These works emerge from the ‘Creative Practice’ classes of the Irish Dance BA programme, which are focussed, reflective and exploratory sessions. Using approaches and tools such as deconstruction, authentic movement, and improvisation, amongst others, we facilitate an emergence of aesthetics and concepts which reveal the students’ innate artistic expression, a window to the world as they see it and as it manifests upon them.

“At the Irish World Academy (UL) we aim to create ‘thinking dancers’ and ‘dancers who think’. We acknowledge that these are people with formal training in the Irish step dance tradition. At the same time we embrace their lived experiences and consider how that affects their way with their movement, and how it manifests in poetic, emotive, and powerful dances, so that they may divulge to us a version of the world we may not have access to.” Dr Breandán de Gallaí - BA Irish Dance Course Director

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Aneta Dortová (Choreography, performance) and William Troy (Music, performance)

 “Opacity” is a new work created during Aneta and William's Festival residency. 

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About the Artists

Aneta Dortová is a dance artist, choreographer, and musician based in Galway, Limerick, and Pilsen. She holds an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick. Her artistic practice centres on the relationship between live music and dance and the intersection of traditional and contemporary dance. Aneta finds joy in collaborating with artists of all disciplines, firmly believing in the transformative power of dance and its potential to create connections within and between communities.

William Troy is a guitarist and composer residing in Maynooth. He trained in classical guitar in the Laois School of Music and has completed a Masters degree in Composition and Creative Music Practice at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick. His compositions focus mainly on creating soundscapes which combine real-world and artificial elements.

Sibéal Davitt is a dance artist, performer and teacher from Dublin. Her style of dance is influenced by contemporary, classical and Irish traditional sean-nós dance, having trained in all styles  from an early age. In 2019 Sibéal was one of five recipients of An Chomhairle Ealaíon’s inaugural Markievicz award. She was Dance Ireland’s Associate Artist in 2020 and used these supports to develop new works. Her acclaimed solo dance show Minseach (she-goat) premiered at Dublin Fringe Festival in 2021 and is currently touring venues around Ireland. In May 2024 she was commissioned by CoisCéim Dance Theatre and Waterways Ireland to make a short site specific work entitled Bench#3 which premiered at Dublin Dance Festival.

Úna Monaghan is a harper, composer, researcher and sound artist. She collaborates, improvises and performs with poets, visual artists, computers, writers, musicians, and others. Úna has held artist residencies at the Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas Montréal, and Atlantic Music Festival, Maine, USA. She performs solo with harp and electronics and with new sextet Stone Drawn Circles. She has released two albums of her compositions, most recently Aonaracht, for solo traditional musicians and electronics. Úna received the inaugural Liam O’Flynn Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Concert Hall Dublin, and held the Rosamund Harding Research Fellowship in Music at NewnhamCollege, University of Cambridge from 2016-2019. She is a lecturer in Sound and Music at Queen’s University Belfast, where her research examines the intersections between Irish traditional music, experimental music practices, improvisation and interactive technologies. 

Orla Shannon is 21 and has been dancing since she was three years old. Now set to enter her final year of college at the Irish  World Academy in the University of Limerick, she is thrilled to showcase the skills she has acquired over the last 3 years. Orla is delighted to be performing at the festival this year and hopes everyone enjoys her presentation.

Orielle O'Donnell, age 19, has been dancing since the age of 3. Born and raised in the heart of Limerick City, she decided to pursue her passion for Irish dance further at university and is currently a BA student at the Irish World Academy. Orielle has had the opportunity to perform numerous times throughout her career and is excited to share some of the pieces she has been working on.

Aisha Assad 20 year old Aisha was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been dancing for eight years and decided to pursue her love for performing into third level education. She is now a student at the Irish World Academy doing a BA in Irish Dance, getting the opportunity to participate in numerous events such as 'Tradition and Beyond', providing the audience with a glimpse of her personality through her dancing.

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Echo Echo Festival Presents Tradition and Beyond

Festival Brochure

Click image above or click here.

Ticket Prices

• Performance tickets - £11 / £8.80 concession each including booking fee
• Workshops - £5.50 including booking fee
• Exhibition - Free

Booking

Online booking via WeGotTickets. Please book in advance.

Accessibility information

Echo Echo Studios on Magazine Street are fully accessible. Both floors in the centre are accessed via a platform lift.

If you have a specific query or access requirement please contact us in advance by email: info [at] echoechodance.com or phone: 02871308883.

Further Access information about Echo Echo Studios including video tours.

Festival Supporters

Produced by Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company in partnership with University of Limerick.

Echo Echo Festival Presents 'Tradition and Beyond 2024' is kindly supported by the Department for Tourism Culture Arts Gaeltacht Sport and Media Co-operation with Northern Ireland Funding Scheme. 

Echo Echo Principal Funder is the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and The National Lottery through ACNI. Echo Echo is supported by Derry City and Strabane District Council and the Garfield Weston Foundation.