Creative Audiences - Liz Roche Company Talking Dance

After an open call in February, we gathered a group of forty participants to take part in a three-month audience engagement project, presented by Liz Roche Company in partnership with Dublin Dance Festival.

In light of the Coronavirus lockdown, the programme was moved online and we're delighted that the participants were still able to take part in a series of weekly practical creative tasks, talks and feedback sessions.

The aim of the overall programme was to offer a deeper insight into the art form of dance, with opportunities to discuss and to respond creatively to dance works by Liz Roche Company and work presented at Dublin Dance Festival's Digital Capsule 2020.

Facilitated by Jenny Macdonald and Liz Roche with members of Liz Roche Company, this opportunity has given our participants insight into the company’s creative process on their recent work, The Here Trio, which explores key themes such as memory, empathy, what it is to be “here”, and relationships between politics and psychology on this island and beyond.

Participants engaged in many different ways with the process over this time. Starting off with improvisation and creative writing tasks designed for a social distancing situation, participants were also given the chance to experience a series of behind-the-scenes talks with our Artistic Director Benjamin Perchet, Choreographer Liz Roche and The Here Trio dancers, Sarah Cerneaux, Glòria Ros Abellana and Ryan O'Neill.

The process then moved towards the generation of personal creative responses to the experience with the facilitators supporting participants throughout, and we invite you to explore these responses from 7 of the participants here.

HERE/SAFETY by Maria Kelly
Maria Kelly's audiovisual response to the Creative Audiences Programme.

PUSHING WALLS by Fabiana Scaglioni
The choreography arose from the feelings and experiences lived during the lockdown and organized after performing the creative tasks. Suffocating feelings were expressed in the contraction movements where the red picture appears as padded walls that do not allow the movement to complete. When a little air was reached the movements expanded and an image of elastic and colored walls appeared. This picture illustrates my experience of isolation during the pandemic where the walls of the images suffocated and at the same time were dispatched creating gaps of breathing.

MOVING INTO NOTHING by Fionnuala Conway
A music composition and poetic text in response to the Creative Audiences Programme by Liz Roche Company and Dublin Dance Festival 2020

SLOWLY CONNECTING by Shonagh Hill
Working on the creative tasks allowed me to take time for myself away from my children and all the exhausting work of getting us through the lockdown. I am very grateful for what the process gave me during this period. Initially I was working in a very small space and the limitations this put on my movements without doubt reflected what I was struggling with in daily life. Our engagement with The Here Trio led me towards creating space ‘here’ that reflected my desire for ‘there’ and that channelled my efforts to expand my movement and create breathing space.

IN THE SHADOW SPACES by Clara Fitzgerald
Clara Fitzgerald's audiovisual response to the Creative Audiences Programme.

GROUNDED by Aoife Dempsey
This piece evolved from a series of creative exercises which involved tuning into the senses and following movement impulses. Throughout the process, the group explored the idea of what it means to be "here." This took on new significance taking place as it did in the midst of lockdown. "Here" was experienced simultaneously in two opposing ways. "Here" was the loss of an elsewhere and the involuntary grounding of the body, leading to feelings of frustration and claustrophobia. "Here" was also an intense grounding and moving within nature's rhythms, bringing a sense of peace and harmony not usually permitted by modern life.

WHERE IS HERE by Brian Keegan
Brian Keegan's sound design response to the Creative Audiences Programme.