Irish Times Review of 'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance'

This is Mick Heaney's review of 'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance' as it appeared in the Irish Times on Saturday November 5th.  You can make your own mind up by listening to the podcast of the documentary, which is available by clicking here.  Would love to hear your thoughts on it!

In the meantime, I am grateful to Simon Cumbers Media Fund who awarded me a grant in their most recent round to go to Malawi next month to document the pilot programme of TCD Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering's part Irish Aid funded M-Power Stove Project.  So I'm busy organising that and will keep you posted on how it goes.  As I will be over there at the start of the holiday season, I'm hoping to stay on and volunteer for Concern Universal for a few weeks.  Can't wait to discover Malawi.  I'll be looking out for their traditional dancing and theatre too.  Watch this space!

'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance' on Lyric FM this Friday Nov 4th

RTE LYRIC FM RADIO DOCUMENTARY

Doreen – Telling the Dancer from the Dance

In 1927 WB Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre Ballets with Ninette de Valois, the Irish woman who would go on to create the Royal British Ballet.  WB Yeats is well known as one of the world’s greatest writers.  His prophetic vision for dance, and the body are less known however. Thanks to an exclusive interview with Doreen Cuthbert, who danced in the Abbey Theatre Ballets from its inception in 1927 until its demise in 1933, in this documentary we reclaim this lost cultural history, and in doing so, tell the dancer from the dance.  

Commentators include Roy Foster, Yeats’s biographer, Richard Allen Cave, author of “Collaborations: Ninette de Valois & WB Yeats”, JW Flannery, author of “Yeats and the Idea of a Theatre” and Anna Meadmore, head of Academic Studies at the Royal Ballet of Great Britain. 

Aurally, this documentary takes the listener on a musical journey, from the music danced to by the Abbey Theatre Ballets - Schubert and Chopin - to Victor Sylvester, to original music composed for dance by Philip Feeney (for Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre) and The Edge (for Morleigh Steinberg’s “Cold Dream Colour”).

The documentary will be broadcast on RTE Lyric FM’s “Lyric Feature” slot on Friday November 4^th at 7pm., and afterwards will be available as a podcast via http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/features/. .

A Deirdre Mulrooney Production for RTE Lyric FM
Sound Supervision by John Davis
Narration by Pat Laffan
Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, with additional support from the Arts Council of Ireland

* For more information/ images call Deirdre on 086-6075785, or email Deirdre at deir@indigo.ie

Sunday Times Culture Magazine

RTE Guide