Tradition and Beyond: Workshop Programme 

******ANNOUNCEMENT, ALL WORKSHOPS NOW FREE OF CHARGE******

Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin will host a series of workshops during the Festival. These classes are open to everyone over 14 years of age. Each artist will introduce some of the ways they work with dance and movement. The workshops are for anyone interested in looking at Irish dance in a different way and finding new connections to the old.

If you have a specific question please get in touch. All are welcome and do stay for a cup of tea and a chat afterwards!

Friday 16th September | 5pm-6.30pm | Aneta Dortová & William Troy

Native of Plzen, in the Czech Republic, Aneta is percussive and contemporary dance artist and a musician. Her personal dance style blends contemporary dance with body percussion and percussive dance traditions of Ireland, Canada, United States, England, Scotland, and Spain. For her, art and dance is a tool for communication and a way of connecting with local communities.

This relaxed and easy-going workshop, which is open to people from the age of 14 years and up, offers people the chance to learn traditional Irish dancing steps that originate from Gerry Munnix (Jeremaiah Molyneaux), the famous travelling Irish dancing master from North Kerry. We will cover some of the unique elements & steps that make up and illustrate this particular style of Irish step dancing and we will teach a fun set dance too! No dance experience required. Just bring yourself and your good humour!

Saturday 17th September | 10am-11.30am | Sarah Fennell & Laura Lundy

Sarah Fennell and Laura Lundy are two Irish Dancers who studied Irish Dance Performance at the University of Limerick. They both studied under Breandan DeGallai, Kristyn Fontanella and Colin Dunne.

They work together to develop their artistic practice through questioning their dancing bodies and pushing the boundaries of traditional Irish dance. 

In their workshop they will do a slow / gentle warm up and then move through improvisation techniques that they have used as part of creating their piece ‘onetwothree’ They will also teach some small excerpts from the piece.

Saturday 17th September | 2pm-3.30pm | Joanne Barry and Anne O’Donnell (Siamsa Tíre)

Both Joanna and Anne joined Siamsa Tíre (the national folk theatre of Ireland in Kerry) when they were very young, and this has become the lens through which they examine the world as artists. The National Folk Theatre was born from a simple idea – to develop pieces of theatre around rural works songs, surrounding these songs with dance, movement and music. From these simple beginnings was born a vibrant and exciting company which continues the values of tradition and exploration. Their work exists to examine what ‘folk’ is, what it means, and how it can be brought with us into the here and now.

In this workshop Joanna and Anne will introduce you to some of their working proccesses.

Sunday 18th September | 11am-12.30pm | Kristyn Fontanella & Moya Sweeney (12 years +)

Kristyn Fontanella has established herself as a leading choreographer in the development of Irish step dance and continues to evolve an instantly recognizable style which focuses on exploring her vast knowledge of Irish Step dancing within a contemporary context. As a choreographer, her mission is to show another side of the complex world of Irish Step dancing to future generations of Irish dancers. Kristyn wants her work to be a new way of thinking about the tradition and for the audience to find the familiar of the old within the new. 

Sitting in-between the two worlds of traditional and contemporary, Kristyn’s class will take the basics of what makes this tradition so attractive and translate it into a new, grounded but still recognizable language of music and dance. This class will be in bare feet and have a close relation to the live music played by Moya Sweeney. Technique is not focused on but more of the relationship of movement within the music.

Echo Echo Festival Presents 

Tradition and Beyond 

Programme

View Festival brochure (pdf, 3MB) OR CLICK IMAGE ABOVE

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Booking information

• Festival Pass £25 for 4 performances
• Performance tickets £5 to £10 each
• Workshops - ALL FREE ENTRY

Advance booking via WeGotTickets.

Buy Tickets

Festival Passes and Tickets available now!

Accessibility information

Festival venues Echo Echo Studios on Magazine Street and Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin on Great James Street are fully accessible. If you have a specific query please contact us in advance by email: info [at] echoechodance.com or phone: 02871308883.

Festival Supporters

Produced in partnership by Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company, Siamsa Tíre and Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin.

Supported by Department for Culture (Dept TCAGSM Ireland), Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City and Strabane District Council and the Foyle Foundation.