It was a pleasure to look through more than 100 proposals from artists and companies, from all over the world, who wanted to perform in our mixed evening of short works. Thank you to all of them for their proposals. From these we have chosen eight great pieces from local, regional and international artists which will together make up a wonderfully diverse programme.
Junebug Company – Geneva, Switzerland
‘Harmony in Blues’
‘Harmony in Blues’ is originally a trio created by Junebug Company; this duet version shows an extract of the piece. It is about two women who, in their individuality, discover a deep common ground where dance is an expression of the complex beauty of the human experience. Serenity interweaves with outbursts of emotion in this bohemian journey across the dancers’ imaginations.
Choreography: Erin O’Reilly (California)
Chorography and Performance: Sophie Ammann (Switzerland), Rosanne Briens (France)
Music: Forever is Just a Day by Hurray for the Riff Raff; This Magic Moment by Lou Reed
Rachel Sheil – Limerick
‘unfiltered fantasies’
‘unfiltered fantasies’ brings together influences from my childhood. Things I had left behind were drawing me back. I needed to remember my child-like self. Through this process huge themes emerged; imagination, power, freedom. Contained in my "growing up" was the answer to a lot of questions I have as an adult. When I was small I felt huge, powerful, wild and free. When I am feeling small now, I must remember. I must imagine.
Concept, choreographer and performer: Rachel Sheil
Music: Warm Shadow by Fink
Supported by: Dance Theatre of Ireland
Delighters – Hungary/Derry
‘Etudes for hoop and violin’
Studies on movement, music and a game of leadership. Does the violin(ist) create the movement of the hoop and animate the dancer, or does the movement of the simple circle of the hoop dictate the music and the movement? Hungarian/Scottish dancer and hula hooper Jusztina Hermann and Derry-based fiddle player Robert Peoples join to explore a blend of disciplines: circus, contemporary dance, choreography and improvisation with live music.
Director and performer: Jusztina Hermann
Music: Robert Peoples (Balkan Alien Sound)
Yukiko Masui – Tokyo/London
‘Unbox’
‘Unbox’ is a solo movement piece exploring the point where urban, contemporary and tradition meet. This work aims to find movements which do not belong anywhere… or belong everywhere?
The process has been a very personal journey and investigation into cross-genre movements which aim to be unidentified as a dance genre. I am searching for a place in which people cannot put me in a category as a dancer or a person.
Direction: Yukiko Masui
Music: Vexinations/ Jemapur, Mode2/ Moderat
Supported by: The Place
Jann Gallois – Paris, France
‘P=mg’
P = mg is the formula for weight. Gravity pulling an object towards the Earth. This force is omnipresent, it impacts every particle of our body, constantly pulling us towards the ground. We are so used to it we're not even aware of it.
There is also a psychological dimension, a weight we are also often not aware of, that makes us veer off course or slows us down. It can come from other people, from fears, beliefs, prejudices... If my family hadn't been so against my wish to dance would I have become a professional dancer.?
How can constraint become fuel, enabling the body to reach a place it might never have reached without it?
Choreography and performance: Jann Gallois
Original Music: Jean-Charles Zambo
Light design: Cyril Mulon
Costume: Marie-Cécile Viault
Mel Bradley – Derry
‘You Maiden, I Mother’
‘You Maiden, I Mother’ is a performance piece that combines the spoken word and the movement of dance to create one fluid poetic exploration of motherhood. Words and movement together in conversation tell the story of one woman on a journey with her daughter from first breath to her first steps towards adulthood.
Writing/Poetry – Mel Bradley
Choreography of movement – Zoe Ramsey
Direction – Tonya Sheina
Supported by: Arts Council NI
Helga Deasey – Cork/Germany
‘Traces of the hand’
‘Traces of the Hand’ investigates how sensations evoked through touch translate into movement. Touch becomes tangible, both in our bodies and our surroundings through the traces it leaves behind: fleeting traces carved into space through movement, perceived in the moment; and lasting traces left by us, and in us, through experiences, encounters and pathways shared.
Choreography and performance: Helga Deasy
Music: Amiina, Ryan Teague
Costume: Karin Kutter
Nastja Stefanic – Croatia
‘Cadenza per 6’
Dance and musical interaction between three dancers and three musicians contributes to the construction of the stage scene - the generation of "image", which performers, according to certain principles of mutual conditionality, construct and deconstruct in space.
Mutual listening and conversation are in the foreground and are implemented through a diverse range of relationships, primarily of dance and music, but also through spatial relations, mutual focus, dynamics and quality.
Choreographer: Nastasja Stefanic
Performers: Koraljka Begovic, Sintija Kucic and Martina Terzic, Iva Stefancic
Music composed and performed by: Branko Nikolic and Marko Rusnov
Costume: From the archive of the Teatar &TD (Zagreb) and the performers own
Gallery images courtesy of Delighters, Rachel Sheil, Helga Deasy
