Two dance artists elected as members of Aosdána

Two of Ireland's acclaimed choreographers and performers, Liz Roche (Liz Roche Company) and John Scott (Irish Modern Dance Theatre) have recently been elected as member of Aosdána. This is an exciting moment, not only for the artists elected but for the growing artform of dance in Ireland.

Founded in 1981, Aosdána honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland, and assists members in devoting their energies fully to their art practice.

Membership of Aosdána, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to 250 living artists, who have produced a distinguished body of work. The membership includes creative artists working in a wide range of genres within the disciplines of architecture, choreography, music, literature and visual art.

Newly elected members in the field of choreography:

Liz Roche is co-founder and Artistic Director of Dublin-based dance company Liz Roche Company. Company-in-residence (2017 – 2019) at Dublin Dance Festival and the Civic Theatre Tallaght, the company has produced and toured over 20 of her works, performing throughout Ireland and internationally at prestigious venues and festivals including the Baryshnikov Arts Centre New York, South Bank Centre London, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Meet in Beijing Festival and Powerhouse Brisbane. Recent commissions include I/Thou for Cork Opera House in partnership with Sirius Arts Centre which saw a major new production for the Opera House stage inspired by the work of visual artist Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland; The Here Trio for Maiden Voyage Belfast and Naher… closer, nearer, sooner, for Goethe-Institut Ireland for the opening of their newly refurbished building on Merrion Square. In 2017 the company presented Totems for the National Gallery of Ireland and Dublin Dance Festival. In 2016, Liz directed Embodied, a series of 5 choreographed female proclamations for Dublin Dance Festival, commissioned by An Post/GPO for their 2016 celebrations. In 2015 the company premiered Bastard Amber, commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival and Kilkenny Arts Festival. Between 2009 and 2012, Roche was choreographer-in-residence at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University Limerick, and is a former recipient of Peter Darrell Choreographic Award, Bonnie Bird UK New Choreography Award and the Dublin Fringe Festival’s Jane Snow Award. Her work in opera and theatre includes choreographies for Irish National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, National Opera of Korea, Rossini Opera Festival & Liceu Barcelona, Opernhaus Zurich, Opera de Nice and Opera Ireland, The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre and for Landmark Productions, The Ark Children’s Theatre and The Lyric Theatre Belfast.

Dublin-born choreographer John Scott studied and performed at Irish National College of Dance / Dublin City Ballet 1982 – 1985 in works by Anton Dolin, Anna Sokolow and Babil Gandara. He subsequently studied with Choreographer / Composer / Filmmaker Meredith Monk in New York and performed in her masterpiece Quarry at Spoleto Festival and for Oona Doherty, Yoshiko Chuma, Sarah Rudner, Anna Sokolow and Thomas Lehmen in the US, UK and Ireland. He founded Irish Modern Dance Theatre in 1991 as a platform for his own work and to create international choreographic exchanges with major international choreographers with the Irish dance community to develop a contemporary Irish choreographic voice. His choreographic work includes Divine Madness (2019), Inventions (2018), Cloud Study (2018), Everything Now, Lear, Fall and Recover, and Actions which have been presented in Ireland at Dublin Dance Festival, Galway International Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and internationally at John F Kennedy Center, Washington DC, New York, Live Arts, La MaMa, Danspace Project at St Mark’s Church, PS 122, New York, Dance Base, Edinburgh, Sounded Bodies Festival and Queer Zagreb, Les Hivernales, Avignon, Tanzmesse Dusseldorf, Forum Cultural Mundial, Brazil and Ramallah International Dance Festival, Palestine. Since 2003, Scott has developed pioneering works integrating Survivors of Torture from Africa and the Middle East. He has choreographed several dance films shown on RTE and at international festivals. He recently collaborated with Pan Pan on Beckett’s QUAD. Scott is a subject of Sadlers Wells’ 52 Portraits by Jonathan Burrows, Matteo Fargin and Hugo Glendinning. He has also created works for Blanca Arrietta Company, Bilbao; Conservatoire Superieur National pour la Musique et pour la Danse, Paris; Croí Glan Integrated Dance Company and Step Up Dance Company. He has taught choreography at Irish World Academy, UL, Drama Department, UCD, Drama Department NUIG, Drexel University, Philidelphia, University of Colorado at Boulder and San Jose State University USA.

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