Alexandre Iseli of Tipperary Dance introduces the 13th edition of the Tipperary Dance International Festival - running from 06-16 October, the festival will showcase performances and events by national and international dance artists in ten locations across County Tipperary.
Since 2010, the Tipperary Dance International Festival (formerly TDP International Dance Festival) has been bringing the best of dance from Ireland and the world to County Tipperary.
The festival has shown the work of more than 200 artists over the last decade. It is an exciting time for the organisation. Until this year, the festival was co-curated with my partner Jazmin Chiodi. I am now taking Tipperary Dance forward, while staying true to the core values that have driven Tipperary Dance Platform since its inception: care, understanding, integrity, tenacity, and generosity of spirit. These values have been key elements in building meaningful and solid relationships with local, national and international communities, who in turn have made this journey possible.
When I was a dancer in La Rochelle's National Choreographic Centre, spectators used to approach us after the performance to express their gratitude for providing them with a physical experience. That is how I understood that dancers are gatekeepers. We are guardians, by proxy, of a space that many of us can hardly afford to keep alive. Most people have very limited time for themselves. Dancers (try to) dedicate most of their time to the luxury of just being effective living organisms.
Attentive to our bodies’ perception, intelligence, and efficacy, our job is to be mindful of the fact that we are embodied beings. Trying to perceive and optimize how we use ourselves. We play with the endless ways of living an embodied life, experimenting with all forms of coordination and their significance. Our purpose, when we perform, is to include you, the audience, on board of our journey: to move you by moving ourselves. For us, dance is always social, always shared, always relevant, never trivial.
It is therefore an understatement to say that we are delighted and proud to gather artists once again in Tipperary (this year from Ireland, Italy, Germany and France), to meet our audience and meet each other, in the flesh! We have an inspiring and diverse programme on offer.
A Festival double-bill of two international solo artists have their Irish premiere at Tipperary Excel Arts Centre. Tanzanweisungen (it won’t be like this forever) by Aerowaves artist Moritz Ostruschnjak, is a thirty-minute solo piece, both physical and full of self-reflective and ironic references that defies any definition. It is contrasted with multi-award winning author and choreographer Francesca Foscarini’s Animale, inspired by the painter Antonio Ligabue, and described as a small masterpiece in choreography.
The second Festival double bill, at The Source Arts Centre, Thurles sees the premiere of Root, a new work from Syrian born, Berlin based Saeed Hani who works on the subtle relationships that exist between the abstract shapes produced by bodies and skin, the impact of these shapes on our thoughts and emotions, and the unsettling effect this has on us.
For this project, Saeed worked with three graduates from the dance programme at University of Limerick this summer via online encounters, and a residency prior to the October premiere of Root. Such opportunities are only possible thanks to collaborations like the one between Tipperary Dance and Trois C-L, Luxemburg's Choreographic Centre. International connections go a long way, and this year, our programme welcomes Italian artists through a partnership with the newly formed organisation 18M8L (18 Months, 8 Locations).
Later, irish modern dance theatre's John Scott will present the ensemble piece Dances for Inside and Outside. A piece in the making since the pandemic, this is a fast-moving dance explosion with eight stunning dancers from Ireland, Angola, France, Poland, and Ethiopia. To see a large ensemble piece is very rare in Ireland, and a unique opportunity in Tipperary.
We always chose works that can be appreciated by everyone, not only dance specialists. There is something impactful and directly perceivable in each one of these pieces, it may be sometimes a form of narrative, but meaning often comes more directly from the physical commitment of the performers, their embodiment, the generosity and humanity of their presence. This is what we like to portray. It's a form of engagement that takes you by the hand, as a spectator, and invites you on board, to visit your own perceptions and thoughts. The festival is an opportunity to present the best Irish artists, and to bring from abroad new forms, colours or ideas that are not so familiar here.
Intrinsic to the festival programme is Spotlight Ireland, designed to instigate and facilitate conversations between dance artists and producers, presenters and programmers from Ireland and abroad. Spotlight Ireland will showcase works in progress from Lucia Kickham and Fearghus Ó Conchúir and the world premiere of Ayè by Limerick based B-boy Tobi Omoteso, in a duet that combines street dance, voice and live music.
With our Screendance programme, festival goers are invited to enter the exciting and diverse creative universe of dance choreography reimagined through the lens of film. Twenty films selected from artists across the world including Irish artists Rachel Ní Bhraonáin’s Marion and Stephanie Dufresne’s After Love.
led by choreographers Jazmin Chiodi and Lucy Dawson
We've been particularly impacted by John Degois' deceptively simple Birds, a film that proposes a continuous, fluid and deeply satisfying recomposition of the choreographic space, through a sequence plan where the camera is in constant motion. Claire Marshall's Void is another favorite, a lyrical experience of labyrinthic entrapment, a cinematic dance reconstruction that lies somewhere between Lynch and Hitchcock. The surprising Egypt-made Belia is a beautiful and fresh example of how dance feeds and draws on the reality of everyday life.
Dancing our social engagement is the theme for this year’s Symposium, in partnership with the University of Limerick. It questions the potential of dance to interrogate pressing social issues of our time. It brings together a range of international artists, researchers and students to uncover how dance can be a catalyst for change and a pathway into exploring our humanity.
films responding to natural environments (Pic: Alexandre Iseli)
For Young Audiences, Tipperary Dance commissioned Dublin based Monica Muñoz to create a dynamic duet entitled Up-Close. Presented in school yards across the county, it explores themes of friendship, trust and building resilience. Such creations build community locally, when artists like Monica Muñoz meet people here in Tipperary, interact with other artists, and with the Tipperary Dance team.
The festival is all about the gathering and the sharing of emotions, ideas, and values (and social media handles!), in a space-time that is dedicated and, for just a few days, somewhat protected.
The Tipperary Dance International Festival runs from 6th - 16th October in ten locations across County Tipperary - find out more here.
