THE HERE TRIO
Maiden Voyage Dance
in a new co-production with Liz Roche Company
presents
THE HERE TRIO
The Mac, Belfast :: 7 & 8 February, 2020
The Market Place Theatre, Armagh :: 12 February, 2020
Dance Limerick 2020 (April 23) & Live Collision International Festival at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin (April 25 & 26)
FURTHER INFORMATION at maidenvoyagedance.com / lizrochecompany.com/the-here-trio
Maiden Voyage Dance (Belfast) and Liz Roche Company (Dublin) make a new cross-border collaboration at a very curious time where Brexit will certainly shape how personal, political and business dealings with Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will change for everyone in the future – but how in particular will it leave Northern Ireland? This new dance piece, THE HERE TRIO, takes location and recent histories as its starting place, challenging preconceived ideas about site, history and the right to belong in a place. Opening in Belfast (at The Mac) and in Armagh City (at The Market Place Theatre) before making its way south to Dance Limerick and Live Collision International Festival, Dublin in April 2020.
THE HERE TRIO by Liz Roche is one part of an upcoming dance double bill (together with BRINK by Eileen McClory) on boundaries and belongings where trauma mediates so much of our beliefs and behaviours. THE HERE TRIO strives to bring us back into the moment - to a place where scars, real or imagined, no longer determine our every outcome.
Nicola Curry Artistic Director of Maiden Voyage says, “We are delighted to be collaborating with Liz Roche Company to bring a timely work on boundaries and belonging to the stage with a combined all island creative team just one week after 31 January Brexit deadline. The politics of place impact us all in myriad ways but it is often forgotten that the body is our first home. This new double bill of The Here Trio by Liz Roche and BRINK by Eileen McClory brings the intelligence of the body that houses and holds our past and present experiences to the fore to address often overwhelming issues of where we feel we belong and how we survive when things are beyond our control.”
In this co-production with Maiden Voyage Liz Roche says, “it means I can work with a cast of terrific dancers combined from both our companies and a stellar creative team”.
On making this new work in Belfast, Roche says “It’s never easy to comment on a political situation especially when you are not at the centre point of that experience - you question your right to be there and your permission as a creative artist to have an opinion, and yet there is an empathy and an affect that you have felt for as long as you can remember that needs further investigation and expression, and so it becomes important to try”.
This piece originated with a commission offer from Maiden Voyage to Liz Roche Company last year that kick-started thoughts on the current political situation on the island of Ireland in relation to Brexit. Roche found herself really interested in making a new work that dealt with the strange mix of emotions raised by this circumstance. Realising that even as an outsider as such, that the memory of a more difficult time was not that distant and the fear of a return to conflict is palpable.
At least that was the energy Roche took into the studio for this work, but came at it from a different angle – one that looked at how belief is formed and how the overwhelming information of our life experiences dictate outcomes. The process then took a turn towards the senses and how they differentiate and compare for us. In a grounded way, they let us know that we are “here” but they are also easily corruptible; due to stress or a traumatic experience they can overreact and the emotional and physical response that ensues can exaggerate out of control. It is within this stressful atmosphere that the piece searches for quiet and focus, though it is not always easy to find it.
The Here Trio will perform as a double bill with BRINK, a new duet from Eileen McClory in Belfast and Armagh only: BRINK negotiates the fragile balance for survival when our future is entrusted to another. BRINK is performed by Ryan O’Neill and Vasiliki Stasinaki with music by Katie Richardson.
Maiden Voyage Dance will be hosting outreach performances and creative engagement workshops in schools and colleges from Belfast to Bangor and Derry to Enniskillen in February 2020.
THE HERE TRIO CAST Ryan O'Neill / Sarah Cerneaux / Glὸria Ros Abellana
CREATIVE TEAM
Choreographed by Liz Roche
Lighting by Stephen Dodd
Original Music by Bryan O’Connell
Sound Design & Visuals by Luca Truffarelli
ABOUT
MAIDEN VOYAGE DANCE has been leading the way in contemporary dance in Northern Ireland for 18 years as an artist-led commissioning company. The company offer discoveries in dance with artists, audiences and participants and have created 23 Maiden Belfast full length/mixed bill productions, 9 Dance Exposed short works for public space and 3 Off Spring new works for young and family audiences with local, national and international choreographers and collaborators. Established in Belfast in 2002 by Artistic Director Nicola Curry and joined by Company Manager, Sandy Cuthbert in 2016. Commissioning, producing and touring of new work is at the heart of the artistic programme alongside provision of professional development for professionals and creative learning and engagement opportunities for those new to dance.
Maiden Voyage is principally funded by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Supported by Belfast City Council.
LIZ ROCHE COMPANY is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary dance companies. With a reputation for its finely wrought and beautifully crafted choreographic style, the Dublin based company presents the works of choreographer Liz Roche in collaboration with artists, dancers and designers of the highest calibre. An artistically distinctive and ambitious arts organisation, the company has produced over twenty original productions, touring throughout Ireland and further afield in the UK, Germany, France, USA, Australia and China, most notably being presented at the Baryshnikov Arts Centre and Judson Memorial Church in New York, the South Bank Centre, London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Le Centre Culturel Irlandais, The Irish Arts Festival Beijing and Brisbane Powerhouse.
Recent acheivements include: I/Thou for Cork Opera House, Sirius Arts Centre and DDF 2019, Naher... closer, nearer, sooner for the Goethe-Institut, Totems for National Gallery of Ireland, Embodied for DDF and An Post/GPO and Bastard Amber for the Abbey Theatre, DDF15 and Kilkenny Arts Festival; the first commission of its kind for an Irish contemporary dance company. Residencies and partnerships include: IntraSpaces, a new creative partnership with the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL Company-in-residence at Dublin Dance Festival 2017 – 19 and The Civic Theatre.
Liz Roche Company is strategically funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and supported by Dublin City Council.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
THE MAC, Belfast
Opens Friday 7 February | 11.00am & 8.00pm | £12.50 - £18
Runs Saturday 8 February | 8.00pm | £12.50 - £18
BOOKING – maclive.com
THE MARKET PLACE THEATRE, Armagh
Wednesday 12 February | 8.00pm | £7
BOOKING – marketplacearmagh.com
ALSO runs at Dance Limerick 2020 (April 23) & Live Collision International Festival at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin (April 25 & 26)
*Approximate duration of Double Bill is 75-80 minutes including interval
FURTHER INFO at: maidenvoyagedance.com / lizrochecompany.com