Dance Cork Firkin Crane’s Spring/Summer 2024 season launches in January, featuring an expansive programme of public performances, festivals, residencies, classes, workshops, and a special masterclass. Running from January – June 2024, the programme hosts artists from all over Ireland, as well as from Palestine, Belgium, Norway, and France.
Dance Cork Firkin Crane’s Executive Artistic Director Laurie Uprichard said “The Spring/Summer season at Dance Cork Firkin Crane will bring a broad range of choreographic work to Shandon, from Clare Irish dancer Stephanie Keane to Jean-Baptiste Baele, born in Madagascar, raised in Belgium, now living in Norway. There will be shared performances, full evenings, and several work-in-progress showings throughout the season, giving audiences a number of entry points to the work of these ground-breaking artists. In December we were saddened to hear of the passing of John Ashford, a friend and advocate of the dance community around the world. The former Director of both The Place Theatre (1986–2009) and Aerowaves (1996–2022) will be greatly missed by his colleagues and the wider dance community. In honour of his memory, this season’s programme is dedicated to John”.
The performance season opens with a co-presentation with The Everyman Theatre in February of the highly acclaimed duet Dances Like a Bomb. A powerful and uplifting duet exploring ageing and care, Dances Like a Bomb is the latest work by multi-award-winning dance innovators Junk Ensemble, performed by acclaimed actor Mikel Murfi and leading Irish dance artist Finola Cronin (formerly of Pina Bausch’s Tanz Theater Wuppertal). Performances take place at The Everyman on Thursday 8 – Friday 9 February.
Building on packed audiences in 2023, Take Off Festival returns for its second edition from Wednesday 14 -16 Friday February. Take Off is a dance festival that showcases thrilling dance artists from Ireland and Europe, this season with flavours of contemporary, Irish dance and hip-hop styles. The programme features international choreographers Jean-Baptiste Baele (Belgium/Norway) and Structure-couple (France), chosen from the Aerowaves Twenty23 selected artists, and Irish based artists Stephanie Keane, Mary Nunan, Amir Sabra, Inma Pavon, Billy Kemp & Mick O’Shea and Andrea Williams.
From Friday 17-Saturday 18 May, Dance Cork Firkin Crane welcomes back choreographer Tara Brandel and her company Croí Glan Integrated Dance Company for a performance of Unseen. The work is inspired by invisible forces of nature, both benevolent and malevolent, and is a multidisciplinary performance created and performed in collaboration with abstract painter Stacey White.
In June, Laura Murphy presents This is It as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. A series of multimedia portraits of women in dance in Ireland, the work rethinks the traditional structure and hierarchies of dance. It is a deep meditation on dance and on a life lived in dance. The portraits include Jean Butler, Alicia Christofi Walshe, Lisa Cliffe, Finola Cronin, Joan Davis, Mary Nunan, Katherine O’Malley and Angie Smalis. More details will be revealed in Spring as part of Cork Midsummer Festival’s programme announcement.
In addition to these performances, visiting resident artists Mufutau Yusuf, Magdalena Hylak & Lionel Kasparian, Isabella Oberländer & Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Andrea Williams and Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín plus collaborators will be hosted from January to June for research and development of upcoming projects. Many of the artists will host free to the public work-in-progress sharings at the end of their residency periods. These sharings are open to the public, but pre-registration is requested. Details can be found on our website.
Crane Visual, a visual arts and interdisciplinary social space curated by Dermot Browne, continues with a new public exhibition Le Salon from Monday 15 January-Saturday 24 February, and a residency and events by grassroots activists Anois (Frank O’ Connor and Jude Sherry) of #DerelictIreland in March and April.
Professional classes and workshops continue with a Masterclass led by Junk Ensemble on Friday 9 February, and weekly classes on Thursday mornings led by guest teachers.
Inclusive Dance Cork, a ground-breaking pilot training programme for dancers with and without disabilities continues from January through May 2024, with thanks to funding from the Disability Participation and Awareness Fund of ReThink Ireland, and an anonymous donor through the Community Foundation for Ireland.
Dance Cork Firkin Crane would like to acknowledge the support of Cork City Council, the Arts Council, The Community Foundation for Ireland, and ReThink Ireland.
For more information and booking see dancecorkfirkincrane.ie
