DANCE Hall ireland Callout
Supported by Kerry County Council - Creative communitites award & Arts Bursary award.
Also supported by Arts Council of Ireland’s commissions award.
If you wish to share stories or if you are looking for information on the ongoing FREE Workshops. The workshops take place at Carols Yoga Studio, Maharees, Co.Kerry.
PLEASE EMAIL: dancehallireland@gmail.com
Dancehalls were of huge significance throughout rural Ireland, Town lands and cities. The echoes of which still exist in the stories we are told by older generations.
My key objectives for these FREE workshops are:
1. Collect more real-life stories and experiences of the dancehall era. I believe this to be an important archival feat in Kerry as many of the stories are dying with the dancehalls. As an artist I feel it is my duty to keep these stories alive.
2. A series of community dance workshops to explore influences from Jive, ceili dances and dancing at the crossroads with a contemporary dance twist. These are fun dance workshops led by Jade O'Connor. There is no dance experience necessary and all are welcome.
3. Ask the question - if all the halls are closed, where do we go to dance?
The proposed outcomes for this project will research our dance history and dance influences in Kerry and beyond using the wonderful Kennelly, Killorglin and national folklore archives. And by reaching out to people in our communities who used to frequent dances around Kerry and Ireland.
Ongoing Research & Development: It’s a post-dancehall era, a time where the halls we used to dance in are dying. I am interested in exploring dance and music in Ireland. Collecting stories, images and footage has become part of my ongoing research and development of this work. It feels more important than ever to get people back into their bodies and into the halls and I want to create that arena, that atmosphere. Somewhere safe to come together and dance.
In this non-traditional theatre work we encourage the audience onto their feet, that behaves as a catalyst to bring them out dancing, we perform on ground level which take the walls away and just lets us be in a space together. I’m interested in putting work on in underutilised spaces such as Basketball halls, community halls, warehouses, schools and broaden the version of traditional dance theatre shows. I am looking for new spaces, places to inhabit. Places to bring to life or to put life back into. Dancing together and maybe even singing together? Connect / reconnect, Decode, shake the rust off and get to the heart of something.
The anticipated impact with this project is to reignite a love for dance and the importance of the dance hall to the communities while paying homage to dance’s glory days. By collecting these stories we are adding much needed historical accounts to our archives here in Kerry and Ireland.
