But back on track.

The Many Bodies of Contemporary Dance symposium kicked my day off a little earlier than usual, as panel members Raimund Hoghe, Tere O’Connor, and Caroline Bowditch, along with John Scott and Cindy Cummings (a last minute stand-in for fellow Aosdana member David Bolger), undertook to stimulate new debate and offer fresh perspectives on the many bodies and people involved in dance.

Enthusiastically stewarded by Deirdre Mulrooney, the afternoon saw a shift from panel-led discussion towards more of a round table format, with contributions from Mary Kate Connolly, Jenny Roche, Tara Brandel, Megan Kennedy, and Jeffrey Gormly. The shared commitment to, and passionate belief in dance and its future was as apparent as it was encouraging. And yet, as the afternoon progressed, I couldn’t help feeling that many of the comments made were in essence tangential to one another. As if the point of a remark was ignored, except insofar as it might serve as a point from which to launch another – at times quite divergent – trajectory of thought.

Sure, all this made for a delightfully convivial atmosphere, where harmony and consensus reigned supreme. But I did wonder what might have transpired had we dared appoint the verbally dextrous and incisive Tere O’Connor to play free-wheeling devil’s advocate. Perhaps it would have been a schismatic calamity. But who knows? Perhaps not. Perhaps the resultant exchange would have been as fresh and immediate as DAY, performed by Jean Butler.

Now, I’m aware my response is strongly coloured by other performances of Butler’s I’ve seen over the last few years. She’s struck me as an individual willing to confront head-on the challenge her celebrated status presented her as an artist. She has not shirked this task; and the resultant work has impressed. But it always seemed that some strange inflection of uncertainty was there; a pernicious doubt within that – almost imperceptibly – would check, query or impede every impulse.

Watching Butler’s performance last night though, I felt none of that. Instead, I found that Tere O’Connor has not only choreographed a work that instantiates the vivid immediacy of the ever living now. He – or rather, his work process – has somehow exorcised a spectre and helped a dancer find her way back to herself.

(Of course, seeing as the programme notes say this work ‘questions how much we can really know someone and if our projections constitute our knowing more than the actual truth’, you really should up and find your own projections. Begin your quest by booking here.)

Finding your way back to yourself could also apply to two other works: Swimming with my Mother and  A CORPO LIBERO (FREE STYLE). Bolger’s work-in-progress (featuring both the choreographer and his mother, Madge) is sweet-natured, seeming almost a hybrid of biography, memoir and social history.

As for Silvia Gribaudi’s A CORPO LIBERO…? Well, what can I write that could possibly do it justice? It’s a manifesto for emancipation. It’s beautifully, minutely-observed. It’s uplifting, charming, intoxicating and elevating. And it unabashedly celebrates humanity. And to be completely honest, I don’t think in the entire festival I’ve seen a more beautiful human being on-stage.

What more’s left to say? Get your tickets here.

Wait..what’s that? Got more left to say? Well then, hit the Many Bodies forum here.