It has been a busy few months. We boarded our Tardis, and got the drama/dance recreations of 1940s Dublin for Dance Emergency (the TG4 Splanc documentary), in the can. Not only that, we got it in there with the legendary Olwen Fouere re-incarnating 1940s Modern Dance pioneer Erina Brady. Hooray!
Merrion Square 1940s Flash Mob
Just as I had hoped, Olwen was uncannily perfect as Erina Brady. With the help of choreographer Jessica Kennedy (of www.junkensemble.com), we managed to recreate a very spooky version of Mary Wigman's iconic "Hexentanz", as well as other choreographies Brady would have performed in Dublin. There are also a few others we imagine she may have created. The idea was to find a point where all of our aesthetics intersect - Olwen's; Jessica's; and what we imagine Erina Brady's aesthetic may have been. (Oh yes, and mine too).
Choreographer Jessica Kennedy photographed by Dragana Jurisic
This translated into a barefoot tree flash mob in Merrion Square exactly one month ago today - on that freezing cold, hailstone-y Friday, May 10th (remember?).
Ingrid Nachstern and Olwyn Lyons dance in Merrion Square
We were so blessed to have dedicated dancers Ingrid Nachstern, and Olwyn Lyons; and from the College of Dance in Monkstown (where Joanna Banks is Director), Georgia Begbie, Shauneen Beggan, Caoimhe Ennis, and Orlaith Carr on board for that test of dance vocation. During the hailstones, they would practice the choreography under the big trees. The second the sun came out they would dash out on the cold, wet grass, and dance like it was the sunniest, warmest, most wonderful day we ever had! They were truly awesome.
1940s Flash Mob in Merrion Square
Looking at these photographs you'd imagine it was a perfect summer's day. Trust me, it was not. And not only that, these trojans never so much as complained. It's inspiring to see that level of professionalism and commitment. Plus the dance looks wonderful too.
Tree Dance in Merrion Square
I was thrilled to work with the mighty Una Kavanagh again too [since our last collaboration, "ShesaWhore" in Project Cube in 2001]. Una played Reverend Mother alongside her TATSOI collaborator Niamh Shaw. Niamh and Una make a very convincing pair of 1940s Brigidine nuns, I have to say - which is quite chilling when you think about their contribution to "Laundry". Other College of Dance pupils played the convent girls in Jacqueline Robinson's 1940s modern dance class [taught by dancer Karen Gleeson as Robinson]. The main challenge for these accomplished, well-trained dancers - Sarah Hanley, Aifric McKinley, Jessica Concannon, Karen McNamara, Hannah Greene, Megan McEvoy, Aoife Ledwith, and the aforementioned - was not to look as good at dancing as they actually are.
Una Kavanagh and Niamh Shaw
In our Bohemian Tardis back to forgotten 1940s Dublin, dancer Lucia Kickham portrayed Ireland's first home-grown modern dancer, June Fryer.
Lucia Kickham and Karen Gleeson photographed by Dragana Jurisic
Lucia and Karen performed a gorgeous duet in our make-believe recreation of a so-called "Bottle and Pyjama" party, hosted by Olwen as Erina, to a fabulous cast of real-life Bohemians including Helen McNulty, Marc Brady, Liadain Herriott, Megan Kennedy, Dragana Jurisic, Caoimhin O Briain, Gary Farrelly, and more arty bohos. No acting required.
Bottle & Pyjama Party photographed by Dragana Jurisic
Dance Emergency has also been graced with the epic talents of gorgeous Zena Donnelly as young Erina; Tom Hickey, as Erina's cousin Tom Brady, and Peter Sheridan, who takes a genius turn as the detective. So as you can imagine I can't wait to get into the edit next Monday June 17th and see how this all cuts together. Lan ar aghaidh!
Dragana Jurisic and Megan Kennedy photographed by Dragana Jurisic
In the meantime I've been transcribing interviews, and planning it all out. I've also been sorting the fundit film awards - namely, prints relating to "1943 - A Dance Odyssey", with the help and advice in this case of fine art printers, Inspirational Arts. So if you are one of the generous believers who is waiting for one of these, rest assured the pigment print is drying and it will soon be wending its way in your direction.
It was a total thrill on May 28th, to see the fruits of this labour, "1943 - A Dance Odyssey", for the first time on the big screen as part of Bealtaine Festival at Axis Arts Centre, Ballymun. The audience was wonderful, comprising many of the performers from CoisCeim Dance Theatre's preceding "Dance Across Dublin" show, who were lapping it up, and appreciating the presence of the impressive Ann Fryer/Walsh. Ann was one of the tiny tots in the 1943 film, and currently teaches keep fit classes across Dublin herself in the Fitness League. As one of the audience members astutely pointed out, Ann is a real advertisement for Modern Dance as an art form. From my own point of view, it was amazing to hear a live audience respond wholeheartedly to the film - laughing, ooh-ing, ahh-ing, and generally empathising.
Tree Duet, TickKnock, with Olwyn Lyons and Ingrid Nachstern
Coincidentally, in something like a full circle since Richard Boyd Barrett kindly opened the Bohemians Exhibition at European Union House in memory of June Fryer, on May 9th, 2012 [see below], yesterday afternoon, at his TickKnock "Save our Forests" event, our eco-dancers Olwyn Lyons and Ingrid Nachstern reprised Jessica Kennedy's aforementioned "Erina Brady Tree Dance" choreography from Dance Emergency in a gorgeous "Tree Duet" to "Pass this On" by cool Swedish band "The Knife". The weather was much better this time around! I'm sure Erina Brady would have been happy with that, and maybe was hovering around in some other benevolent dimension. But that's just the friendly tree-loving ghosts...
Tree Duet, with Ingrid Nachstern and Olwyn Lyons
Speaking of ghosts - in other news, my BAI funded Yeats radio project "Words for Music Perhaps" is also happening... More of which soon enough. Watch this spooky space... Woo, woo.
Tree Duet, with Ingrid Nachstern and Olwyn Lyons
Oh and one other thing - in the meantime, after the Dance Emergency Shoot, Dublin Dance Festival 2013 ran from May 14th - 28th. I was happy to be invited on to RTE Radio One's "Arts Tonight" with Vincent Woods, to discuss the proceedings with Seona Mac Reamoinn. (I told you it has been busy). Here is a link if you'd like to listen back to the podcast: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/arts-tonight/programmes/2013/0520/451551-arts-tonight-monday-20-may-2013/?clipid=1219507 And all of that without even mentioning the whole lettuce and purple sprouting broccoli phenomenon in my urban back yard. I'll save that for another day.
Thanks to organisers Loic Guyon, head of Dept of French at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick [2nd from left, pictured with his wife, Anissa], Marie Hackett, Board Member of the Alliance Francaise de Limerick [2nd from right]; & to Prof Meg Harper, of UL [3rd from right, pictured with her husband, Rick], who opened the exhibition. Also pictured is Mairead Ni Bhriain, of Dept of French at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Thanks to the Alliance Francaise de Dublin for designing this wonderful poster, and to The Limetree Theatre, Limerick for hosting this, the first exhibition in their foyer.
Thanks to legendary actor Pat Laffan for kindly reading six of Jacqueline Robinson's poems "Songs from my Heart", which can be heard via the magic of the spectator's mobile phone, & QR Code technology.
It was wonderful to finally see Erina Brady's story being told for the first time, by her former tiny pupils in "1943 - A Dance Odyssey", my first film documentary, on RTE One on Easter Monday, April 1st, at 7.30pm. I hear that it had 150,000 viewers, which somewhat exceeded my original expectation of about 150...
John Boland wrote of it in his television column: "The past was... another country in 1943 - A Dance Odyssey' in which three sisters and two other women revisited the Harcourt Street premises where German-Irish Erina Brady had taught them modern dance 70 years earlier. Their reminiscences of this exotic, bohemian woman were touching and there was a haunting and affecting quality to Deirdre Mulrooney's short film"... (Irish Independent Weekend Review, April 6th, 2013).
If you missed it, you can catch up on the Odyssey in your own time (in the next 20 days), on RTE Player, by clicking here: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10127382/
Sunday Business Post, by Emmanuel Kehoe
Sunday Indpendent, by Sarah Caden
Sunday Times Culture
Irish Independent Saturday Magazine, by Paul Whitington
"Bohemian Bodies" talk at the Irish Architectural Archive about to begin...
Last Tuesday, February 12th I was delighted of the opportunity to
present an hour-long talk at the Irish Architectural Archive entitled
"Bohemian Bodies - Erina Brady's Modern Dance in 1940s Dublin", as part
of Shane O'Toole's series of talks to accompany his fascinating
exhibition "Noel Moffett - Restless Pencil". Who ever knew that
pre-fabs could be so cool? This is a seriously great exhibition and
it's not on for that much longer so get in there while you can! As you
can see from the above photograph (taken by the great Una Kavanagh),
of "The Silent Isle", a section of Erina Brady's 1946 production "The
Voyage of Maeldune", after Tennyson, at the Peacock Theatre, there was
no lack of great visuals to illustrate what I was talking about. I
showed 39 images in all, on top of Liam O'Laoghaire's 11 minute film
"Dance School" which gives us a precious glimpse into Erina Brady's
studio in action in 1943 (how amazing is that?). It was great to get
all this off my chest! Of course I have been steeped
in this material, between working on my upcoming crowd-funded film "1943
- A Dance Odyssey", based on Liam O'Laoghaire's film "Dance School",
and the tiny tots therein; my ongoing TG4 project "Dance Emergency", and
the book, the book, which springs eternal... So it was good to give it
an airing in public, and I'm relieved that talk is over and delivered, to be honest! It is ready to go now, for anyone else who wants to book it. Just drop me an email. Oh
yes, and the exhibition - "Bohemians - Et Ce Chant dans mon Coeur". It
hasn't disappeared you know. After a great month in Culturlann
Sweeney, Kilkee, County Clare in August/September, 2012, the prints are
in waiting in Limerick for an exhibition space to become available.
That's all I can say for the moment, but watch this space, it's
coming...
The hang, in progress...
We had a great time in Culturlann Sweeney,
including a gala opening on August 28th, with Nick Bryson's "Legitimate Bodies" kindly traveling all the way from Birr, County Offaly to share their
work in progress with us.
Tom of Culturlann Sweeney hanging the Bohemians
"Bohemians", at Culturlann Sweeney, Kilkee, County Clare
The Banner Theatre Company, including Mary Cusack, a former schoolmate of mine
from Cahercon Salesian Boarding School, in Kildysert, County Clare, did
a wonderful job performing Jacqueline Robinson's poems in English. I
recorded them on my Handy Zoom recorder, have a listen to "7 Songs from my Heart" by Jacqueline Robinson: They were impressive, and it was really great to hear
those handwritten words performed (directed by Jenny Bassett, the
theatre manager) - I wonderif they were ever performed in a theatre before? On Culture Night we had a wonderful extravaganza of dance in conjunction with the exhibition, from Dinan School of Dance, Ennis, to Siobhan ni Dhuinin, who had just completed her MA in Contemporary Dance at University of Limerick. The Banner Theatre Company performed the poetry again, and I gave a talk on Modern Dance.
Banner Theatre Company perform "7 Songs from my Heart"
So as you can see this project is all about the interdisciplinary, and is constantly evolving. It seemed therefore perfectly appropriate to me that the talk should make its debut in the context of an architecture exhibition. Erina Brady sent her Modern Dance pupils June Fryer and Jacqueline Robinson to Noel Moffett for architecture lessons (Shane O'Toole has the receipts to prove it), and Noel Moffett's first wife, Margot Moffett, was one of Erina's dancers, and is 2nd from the right on the above photograph of The Voyage of Maeldune. To be continued! In the meantime I am looking forward to hosting the Q & A with Catherine Owens this evening after the JDIFF premiere of her 3D film "Colin Dunne - Sculpting Space".
Culture Night, 2012, in Kilkee, County Clare
Q & A with Catherine Owens, director of "Colin Dunne - Sculpting Space" #JDIFF
In this heart-warming love story, The East meets the West, The Sea meets
the Hills, and Darjeeling harmonises with the Cork lilt as Eileen and
Brendan O’Brien make the long and arduous trip from Cork to the
foothills of the Himalayas to give their only daughter Emma away in an
elaborate Nepali wedding ritual involving destiny, and many bottles of
whiskey… Irish Monsoon Wedding tells what has once again become an
archetypal Irish story - of parents coming to terms with the loss of
their children to foreign shores, or, in this case, to a far-off
mountain-top above the clouds in India. Bittersweet tears are balanced
by the joy of a colourful, intercultural wedding celebration complete
with intricate Nepali rituals. This exotic tale unravels against a
backdrop of Edith Wilkins’ wonderful Centre for Street Children, and
Fair Trade Organic Darjeeling Tea, available for sale here in Dublin and
Cork. Tune in for a monsoon of tears, of singing, of laughter and of
course that essential ingredient for any love story - true love.
Noon, December 26th, 2012, on Newstalk 106 – 108FM
A Deirdre Mulrooney Production
Sound Supervision by John Davis
I was delighted to be asked to contribute a piece on the mysterious Joan Denise Moriarty to RTE Sunday Miscellany yesterday on the occasion of 65 years of Cork City Ballet, and the centenary of her birth - perhaps (she kept her date of birth a secret). Here is a link where you can listen again at your leisure, should you so wish:
I haven’t written in here for a while – I have been busy.Among other things, I underwent a
FUND:IT CAMPAIGN! Well, the good news is that I live to tell the tale.Here is the best bit:
Blue Sky
With one day left to go on
my 35 day fund:it campaign, I opened my eyes to see a clear blue sky outside my
bedroom window.Even though it was
October.It was Saturday, October
6thto be precise.At the back of my mind, I knew yoga was
on in Dartmouth Square at 11am, and Cathy Pearson, a friend of mine since we
did the UCD/NYU Scriptwriting Summerschool together many many moons ago was the
teacher that week. I hadn’t seen Cathy in a while and had never done her yoga
class.That, combined with the
blue sky, and the building inner dread of “Hell and Back”, a sadistic 10k run
from Kilruddery Estate, Bray, up the Sugar Loaf, through mud pits, under barbed
wire, through ponds and rivers a friend had signed me in for the next day got
me out the door to stretch gently in the open air with Cathy.(And did I mention that those Dartmouth
Square Saturday morning yoga classes only cost €5?Good value! All the more reason to cycle over there,
yoga mat on back).
My Fund:it “Adventure”, which
started on Monday, September 3rd, would prove to be quite an emotional rollercoaster,
with a happy ending eventually thanks to 63 great people - micro-philanthropists
all. Putting oneself at the mercy of the universe like that can be a terrifying experience, believe me.
Of those 63 fine people, there were only three
I didn’t know before, including eminent architectural historian Shane O’Toole
who is writing a book and curating an exhibition about one of Ireland’s most
important (and forgotten) modern architects, Cork-born Noel Moffett – who was
married to the young Margot Moffett, one of Erina Brady’s dancers in 1940’s
Dublin (she was also prime organiser of the White Stag Art exhibitions).We connected for the first time when
Shane, who had been following my research for a while (unknown to me - how flattering), kindly contributed to my
Fundit campaign. We subsequently met for a wonderful nerd-fest (I speak for
myself when I say “nerd”!), of 1940’s gossip and anecdotes involving Erina
Brady and her dancers. It was as if our research constituted the two respective sides of one coin.
One thing I learned from my
Fund:it campaign was, firstly and foremost – dig deep and stay connected with
your inner zen.Some people who
you think owe you a favour may let you down.This will probably happen. Don’t waste your precious kilojoules on disappointment, or getting angry at them.The faster
you let that go, the better for you.Move on fast.For every one
of those, several others will surprise you with their affirmation
of you and your work.These good people will
emerge delightfully, out of nowhere, and sometimes just as you are about to
despair, before you turn in for a night’s sleep and just can't face up to another glimpse at your fundit page and its static balance.My advice? Focus on them!
So, getting back to
Dartmouth Square yoga class on the last day of my fundit campaign, and just
before launching myself kamikaze-style into “Hell and Back” (notice a theme emerging?).I arrived to pleasant Dartmouth Square,
locked my bike, unravelled my yoga mat, and had a chat with Cathy Pearson (www.yogadeep.com), who
I hadn’t seen in a while – since our mutual friend Dragana Jurisic’s birthday
party a year and a half previously.Dragana, a wonderful photographer herself, worked with Cathy on her
first documentary film “Get the Picture”, about epic photographer and photo
editor John G Morris – which, incidentally, was part-funded through American
crowd-funding site Indiegogo.com.Just completed, and now set to premiere at the Cork Film Festival
November 2012, Cathy’s film happens to be Indiegogo’s most successful Irish
crowd-funding film project to date. "Get The Picture?" Temp Trailer from Get The Picture on Vimeo.
I mentioned my own little
fund:it project, “Dance School Tardis” to Cathy.She immediately asked me to send her a link to it, kindly saying
that she would like to contribute to it, and to share it on facebook. I said
“oh, we have just one day left in the campaign, and we have luckily reached our
target, but it would be really nice of you to share it – the more people that
know about it, the better”.So
that was that, I was the better for doing the yoga class, the sun stayed out, and much later that night,
after seeing “Bird with Boy”, a theatre festival show by Junk Ensemble on
Henrietta street, and just before I hit the hay, I remembered to email Cathy
the link to the Dance School Tardis fundit page: http://www.fundit.ie/project/dance-school-tardis
Before I knew it, it was
Sunday morning and I was making like “Platoon” in the dreaded Hell and Back, up
the Sugar Loaf, through marshes and rivers and mud-pits and over haystacks and
walls and under barbed wire, and through electric fences – lovingly designed
by an ex-military sadist. When I
got home from that, cold, covered from head to toe in mud, with scrapes, bruises,
and nettle-stings (one of our 4-person team even broke her foot), I had a hot
shower and collapsed onto my bed for a while.
Photo by Mark Doyle. Thank-you Mark! :-)
Then I hobbled to my computer screen, as you do, to share my
tale of tribulation and triumph on facebook.
But first, I noticed that
Cathy had kindly done as she had promised and shared my Dance School Tardis
fund:it campaign on her Facebook Page, generously declaring:
“My Friend Deirdre Mulrooney has
just one day left to raise funding for her beautiful film about some of the
history of Modern Dance in Ireland. Please help share and support if you
can.... we have to hijack the arts by
finding new ways to keep it going, this is great. Become a philanthropist
for the day, no amount is too small.”
How great was that?!That cheered me up to no end.
Beneath her opening comment, I noticed a whole conversation had
broken out about my prospective film – starting with:
“Cathy, you would never believe it.. my mum is one of the little
dancers in this film. the little one who turns and looks directly a the camera
with the two bunches . Can you imagine her surprise to see her
self on film 70 years later?...”
“at 49 seconds”
Katie, a friend of Cathy’s who I didn’t know (a photographer in
Berlin as it turns out), had spotted her 80 year old mother, no less, in the
1943 “Dance School” film extract on my video pitch! (See above). This was the
concentrated dancing blonde tiny tot that I couldn't find! Katie’s mother Ann was overcome
with emotion at seeing her younger self on celluloid, and reconnecting to those unforgettable modern dance classes which inspired a life of creativity in her.(None of the 1943 dance class participants were aware the film existed). She had even written notes about the
classes, and tried to track down anything that might be written about Erina
Brady’s dance classes in later life.
!
Magic. Overcome with enthusiasm for the project, and ready to hop on
a plane from the UK to contribute her reminiscences, and creative life story to the film
– I was suddenly feeling like one of the luckiest people on the planet.
Good job I got out of bed and went to yoga the previous morning!So you see, how Fund:it is about much
more than just the money.Though
of course, the money is the essential enabler.As well as facilitating that incredible connection, both Cathy
(who alluded to this heartening anecdote in her talk on Crowd-funding at Dublin Websummit a few weeks later), and Katie kindly contributed to the fund also.That was my magic finale from Fund:it and the universe.Worth waiting for.
And now – the sequel – making the film! I’ll be keeping you posted
on that.In an ideal world, we’ll
be screening it on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2013.But I hope to have a rough cut of it
well before Christmas.I’ll be
keeping a little diary of the making of, here on my blog. Now the time has
arrived to invoke the goddesses of documentary film-making.If you are that way inclined, please,
invoke them with me, and watch this space!
One more word of advice for
anyone thinking of embarking on a Fund:it crowd-funding campaign – everyone needs a cheerleader/personal coach
when embarking into those daunting and unknown waters, to keep "one" going through thick and thin. Crowd-funding like Fund:it is predicated on people who help each other in any way they can no matter how modest (not necessarily money) - just what is needed to keep going in these straitened times. Massivethanks to my Mum for filling that unwavering cheerleader role with panache. And to the other great people. You know who you are :-) [& just in case you don't, there is also a list of my great pantheon of believers here: http://www.fundit.ie/project/funders/dance-school-tardis]
It was a total thrill on May 28th, to see the fruits of this labour, "1943 - A Dance Odyssey", for the first time on the big screen as part of Bealtaine Festival at Axis Arts Centre, Ballymun. The audience was wonderful, comprising many of the performers from CoisCeim Dance Theatre's preceding "Dance Across Dublin" show, who were lapping it up, and appreciating the presence of the impressive Ann Fryer/Walsh. Ann was one of the tiny tots in the 1943 film, and currently teaches keep fit classes across Dublin herself in the Fitness League. As one of the audience members astutely pointed out, Ann is a real advertisement for Modern Dance as an art form. From my own point of view, it was amazing to hear a live audience respond wholeheartedly to the film - laughing, ooh-ing, ahh-ing, and generally empathising. 
