From football pitches to contemporary dance, 17 women primarily from Ballybough and Sheriff Street will take to the stage in Project Arts Centre.
For the last 6 months the women have been trained in a unique and evolving dance practice by choreographer Maria Nilsson Waller and singer/composer Stace Gill/The Sei under their Flora Fauna Project: a multidisciplinary production house rooted in dance and music.
The women came from two GAA teams brought together by Dublin GAA player Michale Darragh MacAuley who is a supporter of the project in the NEIC. “Football brought us together, dancing is keeping us together” says Tracey/Ballybough GAA for Ma’s.
“As a choreographer I am always looking for rawness and bravery in the performers, and I decided to work with non-professional dancers. These women really bring it! I dream, prepare and encourage and am careful not to put the filters of my own dance education on to what these dancers create.” Nilsson Waller says about the piece.
“The River” will be the women’s first time on a professional stage and their comfort zones are being challenged to the max. The last 6 months have been transformative for everyone involved. Sharing what they have learned will be a new level and a rare experience both for performers and audience.
“Me kids asked me, ‘Ma, where ye goin?’ I’m goin’ to be meself for an hour”. – Jackie/Ballybough
The music is composed and performed live on stage by THE SEI / Stace Gill.
Stace Gill, who herself started her dance training only a few years ago says:
“Finding the flow between body and imagination is a game changer in life. These powerful women on stage completely embody this for the audience to see and feel.’
THE RIVER is feminine, loaded with echoes of traditional Dublin, the second piece PIDGIN’ represents masculine spirit and multicultural Ireland.
Pidgin, performed by internationally successful Irish/Nigerian dance artist Mufutau Yusuf, refers to the simplified or bastardised language which came into existence as a result of contact between two or more languages, occurring for example in situations like trade, migration and colonisation. The piece is also a personal take on his own upbringing, living his early childhood in Nigeria and then growing up in Ireland .
The River + Pidgin
Friday 6th 7.30pm
Saturday 2.30pm + 7.30 pm
TICKETS projectartscentre.ie
