International and national dancers descend on Cork for new festival

DANCE Cork Firkin Crane’s season opens with the new Take Off Festival, running from February 16 to 18, presenting the work of three international choreographers and three Irish choreographers.

One of the Irish choreographers is Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín from the Lough area in Cork, who will premiere her piece, entitled Can I Have Your Best Move?

“The piece is based around archives,” she explains.

“I interviewed people and collected their movements when I was associate artist at Dance Limerick and the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick last year.

“I’m working with Billy Kemp who is doing sound and visuals. We have been filming and recording the movements that I collected. Billy has made them look cool. They are digital representations of the body.

“I got some beautiful interviews with people and I ended up recording the word ‘happy’ 17 times. That’s how people feel when they dance. I’ll be sharing these recordings at the festival and I’ll also be dancing live.”

Siobhán, 37, explained how she got into dancing.

“I didn’t really enjoy talking all that much as a child. Dance is a great way to be with other people and communicate through movement and the body.

“I was a quiet child, brought up bilingually. I’d kind of pause before speaking to figure out which language I’d go with. I went to a Gael Scoil. Outside of school, it took a while to register what people were speaking.”

As a child, Siobhán did Irish dancing. But when it started getting competitive, she bowed out as she doesn’t like competing.

“Around 15 or 16, I started doing ballet classes at the Cork Dance Academy. When I left school, I did work experience at a dance company in Switzerland. That’s when I first saw contemporary dance and I ditched everything to take it up. It felt like the right kind of dancing for me.”

Even before taking up ballet classes, Siobhán knew she wanted to be a dancer.

“I was inspired too as a child when my father shared a warehouse with the Everyman costume department. I’d have gone in there while waiting around for him to finish work.

“I was a big reader too and loved reading books about the theatre and the kind of magic you can create from that world of imagination. That was part of a huge draw to dance.”

Siobhán had to go to the UK to train in dance as there were only Post Leaving Certificate courses and the masters in contemporary dance in Ireland at the time. She attended the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, England, and subsequently completed a Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, graduating in 2012.

The experience in Leeds “was challenging,” she said.

“The training was very intense. I was a real home bird and was quite homesick. It was very rigorous training.

“It was a privilege to be able to do it. Lots of people don’t get the opportunity.”

The training for the year-long certificate course started every day at 8am until 6pm.

“I then did the degree there which took three years.”

While a contemporary dance career can continue for as long as the body is flexible enough, Siobhán said that as she edges towards 40, she has noticed a lot of changes in her body.

“And of course, you also acquire plenty of injuries along the way. I’m much more careful than when I was younger. Back then, I would throw myself into anything. I could then take a month off and go back, going hard at the cardio. But really, slow, steady and consistent is the way to go now and just being as efficient as possible.

“I enjoy dancing more at this age because I really know my body so well.”

Siobhán’s mentors are choreographers Mary Noonan and Joan Davis.

“Mary is in her late 60s and is dancing in Limerick this month.

“Women like them who are very experienced, have so much to offer from the depth of their experience as dancers and from their lives.”

The reality of being a dancer living in Cork is that travel is necessary for jobs.

“I travel a lot. I spend a bit of time in Limerick. I’m in Dublin now and I’ve been up and down to Connemara for a project in the bog. There, I was working with a dance artist and producer, Ríonach Ní Néill. She is doing a climate project, interviewing people and taking portraits of them, asking them questions about the future of the bog.”

What this has to do with dance is how people experience the bog through the body.

“It’s a sensory experience of a place that can really shift your thinking. We’ll be exhibiting the photos in March at a venue in Connemara that has yet to be confirmed.”

Siobhán likes travelling, to a certain extent.

“But I definitely want to be in Cork a bit more. Travelling leads to a kind of fragmented life. I don’t travel abroad so much now as I work a lot with a choreographer from Cork, Laura Murphy. As a performer, I’ve travelled to Spain and Germany with her work.”

Executive artistic director of Dance Cork Firkin Crane, Laurie Uprichard suggested the Take Off Festival to Siobhán last autumn.

“She had already fleshed out the idea and asked if I’d like to perform and to be the local host for the dance artists who are coming over to Cork. I really enjoy that kind of hosting work,” said Siobhán.

“It involves everything from picking up people in my car to facilitating round table discussions about dance in Europe as well as sharing practice sessions. And doing a timetable to make sure the dancers get a chance to ring the bells and see Cork.”

Siobhán, like many other dancers, is used to “flitting in and out of places”.

That means it’s hard to build connections.

“So this festival is an opportunity for Irish-based artists to hear about what’s happening across Europe and to share our experience of being in a smaller community.”

She added that what’s good about the festival as well is the “informal energy about it”.

She continued: “We’re encouraged to chat to people. There will be questions and answers after every show.

“Ann Rae is the queen of hosting at the Firkin Crane. She has set up a space very nicely. People aren’t leaving after shows. They stay on for the wine and cheese!”

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Take Off Festival runs from February 16 to 18, presenting three international choreographers’ works, chosen from the Aerowaves Top 20 selected artists, alongside the work of three Irish choreographers. The featured performances are The Very Last Northern Rhino by Gaston Core (ES), Can I Have Your Best Move? By Siobhán ní Dhuinnín (IRL), Comme Un Symbole (Forme Courte) by Alexandre Fandard / Cie Al Fa (FR), A Dance by Magdalena Hylak (IRL), the pleasure of stepping off a horse when it’s moving at full speed by Courtney May Robertson (NE/UK), and Glisten by Isabella Oberländer (IRL).

Dance Cork Firkin Crane’s Executive Artistic Director Laurie Uprichard said: “Launching the Take Off Festival is a thrilling moment for Dance Cork Firkin Crane. Offering audiences the opportunity to meet international artists both on and off the stage is one of our primary goals. Providing a forum in which these artists from abroad will work through the week, sharing practices with Irish artists and getting to know Cork, is a great investment for everyone involved. This is the perfect time to have fun, take a chance and be curious.”

MORE ABOUT DANCE CORK FIRKIN CRANE

Located in a heritage building in Shandon, in Cork’s north city centre, Dance Cork Firkin Crane specialises in supporting dance artists, presenting dance performances, and encouraging people in Cork to engage with dance of all kinds.

Dance Cork Firkin Crane comprises two theatre / exhibition spaces and four professional dance studios as well as dedicated artists’ accommodation in the Jack Lynch House, located just a stone’s throw from the building.

Dance Cork Firkin Crane provides an inclusive and welcoming space for dance work to be developed and viewed through a year-round programme of residencies, workshops, studio rentals, community programmes, dance performances and special events.

It aims to promote and advance dance as a creative artform by supporting the development of dance; sustaining the holistic development of the dance artist and delivering supports to artists and facilitators to bring dance to diverse communities through learning, audience development and participation.

Aerowaves is a hub for dance discovery in Europe, identifying promising new work by emerging dance artists and promoting it through cross-border performances. Dance Cork Firkin Crane and Dance Limerick are among the network of partners spanning 33 countries. See www.dancecorkfirkincrane.ie