Firkin Crane in Cork steps up with impressive new dance programme

Thu, 30 Jun, 2022 - 10:10

Maeve Lee

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Dance Cork Firkin Crane has created a full season of events with artists from across the globe taking part in performances, residencies and classes throughout the rest of the year.

Dance Cork Firkin Crane specialises in supporting dance artists and presenting dance displays with a programme packed with a variety of powerful performances to be held over the coming months. The season officially opened during the Cork Midsummer Festival with the premiere of A Safe Passage, by Cork writer and performer, Irene Kelleher, and will run until December.

This season includes a performance preview of a double bill by the award-winning Lewis Major Projects from Adelaide, Australia ahead of its Galway International Arts Festival premiere. Alongside this is Deirdre Griffin’s Soup which has been described as “a genre-bending performance” as well as Circus Factory’s Pitch’d Festival featuring TeaTime Company’s A Matter of Time which sees three performers disobey the laws of nature as they challenge one another to do the impossible.

Lewis Major Projects present SATORI & UNFOLDING at Dance Cork Firkin Crane 15 and 16 July, 2022. Photo: Chris Herzfield/Camlight Productions

Dance artist and choreographer Helga Deasy continues as Dance Artist-in-Residence with a new dance work, CURA, and a film looking at motherhood while John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre presents Othello (Maybe a Dance) and Michigan-born Irish dancer, Nic Gareiss collaborates with fiddler Ultan O’Brien from Slow Moving Clouds.

Wrapping up the season at the end of the year is Angie Smalis and Colin Gee’s dance work, Horse and a showing by Cork-based dance artist, Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín as part of her residency.

This first season with Executive Artistic Director, Laurie Uprichard promises to expand on the organisation’s mission for dance to be one of the most engaging artforms in Munster. “The companies this season come from as far away as Adelaide and as near as down the road,” explains Uprichard. “All are exploring the language of dance in a variety of ways, investigating its relationship to verbal language, visual language and/or music.”

Helga Deasy Cork City Dance Artist In Residence at the Firkin Crane 2022. Photo by Clare Keogh.

Including Ní Dhuinnín, there will also be a total of six artists who will be taking up residency at Dance Cork Firkin Crane throughout the season. At the end of each residency, there will be a free public showing. These artists include New York-based dancer and choreographer, Jean Butler, best knowns for her role in Riverdance; Clifden-based dancer and choreographer, Magdalena Hylak; and Cork city’s own Luke Murphy.

A new visual arts and interdisciplinary social space curated by Dermot Browne is also set to be launched in July. The season is running now until December 2022.

Irish Modern Dance Theatre presents Othello (Maybe a Dance) as part of Dance Cork Firkin Crane's Summer/Autumn season on 21-22 October, 2022. Photo: Steven Pisano

For more information see www.dancecorkfirkincrane.ie

Performance highlights

15-16 July, 7:30pm: Satori and Unfolding (Double bill) Performance by Lewis Major Projects
9-10 September, 8:00pm: A Matter of Time Performance by TeaTime Company, presented by Pitch’d Festival in association with The Everyman
23-24 September, 8:00pm: Soup Performance by Deirdre Griffin/Headonbody, presented in association with Pitch’d Festival
14-15 October, 7:30pm: Tales of Motherhood and CURA Performance by Dance Artist in Residence, Helga Deasy
21-22 October, 7:30pm: Othello (Maybe a Dance) Performance by John Scott/Irish Modern Dance Theatre
11 November, 7:30pm: Ultan O’Brien amd Nic Gareiss Performance of a new collaboration
25 November, 7:30pm Horse Performance by Angie Smalis and Colin Gee