Shifting your notions of dance.. with Colin Dunne

This one's kind of fun.



I spoke to some friends, trying to cajole them into watching shows at dansfest. One of them looked at me and said flatly, "But I don't like dance." Maybe I need some new friends.



Anyway, I asked him what he liked. He said, "Humour. People poking fun at things. I relate to speech and talking more than i do dancing."


To which I laughed and said, "We actually have something like that."


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The purpose of our dansfest SHIFT programme is to showcase contemporary work that challenge the notions of what dance is and can be. One of our programmes this year is 'Out of Time' by acclaimed Irish dancer Colin Dunne.

Another first for dansfest! We've never showcased Irish dancing before. Colin Dunne is a highly acclaimed, former dancer from Riverdance - The Show, and his performance here includes a big multimedia screen where footage of traditional Irish Step Dance, including him as a child training to be a step dancer will be projected.

But riverdance this is not. Colin will interrogate the style, form and culture of Irish stepdancing in this personal and provocative solo work, peppered with trademark Irish humour where he talks to the screen, addressing his younger self and other dancers. All this while he is zipping across the stage in a blaze of percussive footwork which will then be digitally processed to form a soundscape in real time. Wow. That was a mouthful.

Wit, humour, virtuosic feet, multimedia, speed.. I think it'll be pretty cool.

Catch
Out of Time by Colin Dunne (Ireland)
27 & 28 Oct 09, Tue & Wed, 8pm
Esplanade Theatre Studio