I’ve been capturing field recordings over the last two years as part of the Dance Connects Project, travelling to cross boarder counties Cavan, Monaghan and Fermanagh-Omagh to meet practitioners of diverse dance communities working across professional, amateur, community and commercial dance in contemporary, jive/country, line/social, Sean-Nós, hip hop/urban, Scottish Country and Flamenco in their border areas.
Researchers Dr Aoife McGrath (School of Arts, English and Languages, QUB) and Dr Victoria Durrer (School of Art History and Cultural Policy, UCD) have been mapping out dance practices in these boarder regions and have a number of different branches to their research tree that includes, everything from detailed reports that will be useful for these communities and to local authorities, to short films, an upcoming podcast that includes the dancers’ voices and experiences and an exhibition ‘Moving through and around’, an exhibition by Helena Hamilton, Aoife McGrath, Simon Mills and myself, in collaboration with eight dancers: Ruth Clarke, Marion Crowe, Jamie Fagan, Jessie Keenan, Tina McGurren, Rebeca Sanchez, Aysha Treanor, and Dylan Quinn.
Some info on the exhibition launch below, it will be travelling around the country through 2025/26 so hopefully plenty of opportunities to see all of their gorgeous work.
https://struleartscentre.co.uk/show/moving-through-and-around-exhibition-launch/
This is a short film that captured the dancer’s first meeting at the incredible Marble Arch Caves. The composition was made from field recordings from the site itself and and sounds from my studio here in Westmeath.
Sorca McGrath 