Sadly the 1st Annual Dublin Dance Festival drew to an end on Saturday May 3. Over 17 days, from 17 April, the streets of Dublin were transformed in to a hive of dance activity with over 6000 people attending festival events. Performances by a number of Irish and international artists took place at a variety of locations including: the Abbey Theatre; Project Arts Centre; DanceHouse; Ss Michael & John; O’Reilly Theatre; The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children; Dublin Docklands; and the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire.

This year’s Festival was honoured to present The Forsythe Company’s Three Atmospheric Studies at the Abbey as the headline performance from April 17 to 19. William Forsythe and his company of accomplished performers presented an emotional, thought-provoking study of war and its effect on civilian life with power and conviction. An explosive start to the festival ‘a masterclass in how to partner modern dance and politics, to excavate truth with the human body and voice’ (Seona Mac Reamoinn, The Independent, 21 April 2008).

On a lighter note, opening weekend also saw dedicated dancers turn out, despite the weather, at Grand Canal Square in the Docklands to strut their stuff with DDF and Phantom 105.2’s Jim Carroll and Sinead Ní Mhórda at the Bumper to Bumper headphone disco. The crowd could be seen throwing shapes around the fantastic Martha Schwartz exhibit in seeming silence as Phantom broadcast straight to their headsets. Among the guests was New York fitness legend Pall Gale, fresh from his DDF dance step class at Jackie Skelly’s that morning, he was warmed up and ready to go and still managed to be fresh as a daisy at class the next morning!

Colin Dunne’s charismatic and soul-searching performance of Out of Time was a festival highlight, playing to sold out audiences at Project Arts Centre, while Jenny Roche also premiered Solo3 at Project, the culmination of her PhD work featuring the choreography of John Jasperse, Jodi Melnick and Liz Roche. Other exciting performances at Project included the poetic Ioana Mona Popovici, magical Kitt Johnson, mesmerising Sarah Skaggs and quirky Girl Jonah.

Over at Ss Micheal and John an equally exciting line up consisted of Betontanc from Slovenia, Reykjavik Dance from Iceland and Tere O’Connor from the U.S. These contrasting performances saw this former church transformed in to a violent crime scene, a maniacal dinner party and the venue even became the fifth performer in O’Connor’s architectural exploration Rammed Earth.

Across the city in the O’Reilly Theatre audiences were treated to the wondrous and intricate choreography of Angelin Preljocaj’s quartet in Empty moves (parts I & II), followed by a powerful and physical exploration of masculinity in Risa Jaroslow’s Resist/ Surrender, supported by a chorus of male performers from the Dublin community and an exquisite score performed live by Crash Ensemble.

The Festival+ programme, presented in association with Project Arts Centre and the Pavilion Theatre, presented Jean Butler’s introspective does she take sugar? and Philippe Saire’s colourful Could I just draw your attention to the brevity of life? Two exciting additions to the main festival programme.

Following the success of the 2006 Dance on the Box scheme, RTÉ and the Arts Council joined forces once again to produce four fantastic short dance films, aired on RTÉ and screened in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square. Speaking about the scheme, Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council said: ‘This unique scheme has certainly struck a cord with artists, we are very pleased that viewers all around the country will see four exciting new dance films on television as part of the Dublin Dance Festival.’

Irish talent played an integral part in the festival with a varied line up of performances as part of the Re-Presenting Ireland programme. Co-produced by Dance Ireland and supported by Culture Ireland the programme included live performance, dance on film and site specific performances, all of which were well attended by local supporters and international programmers.

Local schools and families got a taste of contemporary dance too with a season of children’s productions at The Ark. Parents were overwhelmed by the reaction of their children to the performances, with one surprised mum informing us that even the boys liked it!

The 2008 edition may well be over but the good news is that Dublin Dance Festival is now annual so you won’t have to wait quite so long for your next fix! Provisional dates for the 2009 Festival are the first two weeks in May. Watch this space for updates and sign up to our mailing list to keep informed of Festival events and news as it happens.

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported the Festival this year. We look forward to seeing you in 2009 for another exciting programme!