I recall Mary Jones of Arkhive Productions leaning (elegantly),
against the Abbey Theatre Bar, flicking through my book "Irish Moves, an
illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland" at its
April 2006 launch by Fintan O'Toole (part of the 3rd International Dance
Festival Ireland, as Dublin Dance Festival was then known). Alighting
on Chapter 3, about the forgotten chapter of Modern Dance in 1940s
Ireland, and the enigmatic Irish-German Modern Dance Pioneer Erina
Brady, Mary said "I think there might be a film of Erina Brady's school
by Liam O Laoghaire in the Irish Film Archive". Mary, who, as the name
of her documentary company might suggest, has an intimate knowledge of
the contents of the Irish Film Archive, advised me to go in and check
it. So once the book launch festivities were over, like Inspector
Clousseau, or Hercule Poirot, that is exactly what I did.
Lo
and behold, I was handed a seven minute black and white tape called
"Dance School", featuring none other than Erina Brady teaching angelic
little 1940s tiny tots modern dance in her "Irish School of Dance Art"
studio, which, as I knew from Jacqueline Robinson's 1999 Memoir "Modern
Dance in 1940s Ireland" (published in Irish Moves), was at 39
Harcourt Street. Wow! This was an unbelievable record of, and testament
to, Erina Brady's dancing class, populated with small girls, from about 3
or 4 years of age, a few young women, and just one (super cute) little
boy. Who were they? How could I find out? Where might they be now? How
did this film - Ireland's first modern dance film - come about? So many
questions, so little answers! The names of the participants were listed
nowhere - apart from Liam O Laoghaire, credited from the start as
director, and Erina Brady, "student of Mary Wigman".
Finding
the answer to these questions took many years. I began by attending a
lecture by O Laoghaire's (recently deceased), archivist Bob Monks at the
National Library of Ireland on some other topic. After Monk's lunchtime
talk, I approached the helpful archivist, who knew the film, and told
me part of it had been shot on Kodachrome colour. Indeed, "colour" had
been noted on the official documentation about the film. So I returned
to the Irish Film Archive, related what Bob Monks had said, and pointed
to the "colour" indication on the page. Next thing, an eleven minute
film was handed to me, the last four minutes of which, as promised, were
shot in gorgeous
kodachrome colour, of Erina Brady and her pupils
performing to an audience outdoors in a garden which we guessed might be
the Iveagh Gardens (logical - given the proximity to Harcourt street).
Fast
forward a few years, after my foray in a job I was offered at Cirque du
Soleil's Montreal HQ as Artistic Talent Scout (Depisteur Artistique).
In Montreal, where Cirque du Soleil had relocated me, the mystery of
this gorgeous little film by Liam O Laoghaire haunted me, as did the
lost and by now only partly-told story of Erina Brady.
Sensing there
was a big story behind it, I couldn't resist returning to resume my
research a few years later, by writing letters to the Irish Times and
the Anglo-Celt newspapers, and writing articles - all little hooks I
cast out into the universe fishing for information. No answers were
forthcoming, except from Bob Monks again who explained to me over the
phone that the film was made in barter with O Laoghaire in return for
movement classes Erina Brady gave to his Irish language theatre group
down the road at the Daimer Hall.
When Ireland's first modern dancer, June Fryer/ Kuhn passed away in
2011, with the help and support of the Alliance Francaise and the French
Embassy, I put on an exhibition in her memory during Dublin Dance
Festival, 2012, at European Union House on Molesworth Street. As part of
this tribute to her, the Irish Film Archive allowed us to project Liam O
Laoghaire's film "Dance School" on several screens, some of which
pointed out onto Molesworth street, along with a slide-show of archive
photographs from a French Dance Archive and
family collections. This
was the Eureka moment when my ongoing letters to newspapers, (through
which Romy Hogan got in touch with me), and this exhibition gelled. Romy
came along to the European Union House exhibition opening, and was
transfixed by the film. Why wouldn't she be, as herself, her two
sisters, and her former friends were all in it! June's sister, Ann
Fryer/Walsh, also came in and spotted herself in the film too, both in
the black and white studio shots as well as dancing her self-composed
choreography to the Blue Danube, out
in the open air, her fiery red mane of hair exquisite still more than 70 years on, in Kodachrome colour.
So I set about filming the former tiny tots watching their former
selves in O Laoghaire's 1940s film, and going back to revisit the site
of the former studio, which we would discover has transformed from
artist haven to Accord Catholic Marriage Counseling Bureau. This meant
launching a fundit campaign, and a fundit pitching video. This would not
only raise the necessary funds to make the film, but [the video] would
also reach and identify another of the key former tiny tots in the film
who now resides in Leeds, Ann Danaher, via none other than her Berlin
resident daughter's facebook account! Talk about contemporary research
methods and leaving no stone unturned.
The film was broadcast by RTE One television in April 2013, to an
audience of 150,000 - all part of the ongoing research. (Crucially, RTE
also kindly came on board to cover the Archive fees, the Composer fee
(Rossa O Snodaigh of Kila!), and other bits and bobs beyond our reach on
the Fundit budget alone). The final part of the jigsaw was the
identity of the film's beautiful mystery boy. His (as yet unconfirmed)
identity came to us via Bewley's Cafe Theatre, where one of the tiny
tots went to see a Mary Lavery short story adaptation and met another
Erina Brady pupil - from Clondalkin. Yes, she had seen the film. The
conversation got around to the identity of the boy, and the location of
the outdoor dancing. Well, said the lady from Clondalkin, that of course
was Collinstown House, John Betjeman's residence while he was working
at the British Embassy as press attache during the Emergency, and the
boy was none other than his son, Paulie Betjeman (yet to be 100%
verified, but doesn't sound unlikely).
Come
and see for yourself, and meet some of these exceptional former tiny
tots in person next Tuesday, October 28th, at 6.30pm at TCD Samuel
Beckett Theatre. There will be a post show discussion kindly moderated
by Ruth Barton of TCD Film Studies (author of a recent book on Liam O
Laoghaire's favourite, Rex Ingram, and previous books on Jim Sheridan
and others).
An
advertisement for the enlightened and holistic philosophies of modern
dance, these former tiny tots range from a painter; a stain glass artist
and print-maker (and founder of Leinster Print Studio in Clane, County
Kildare); the recipient of a CBE in Peace & Reconciliation in
Northern Ireland, and former Chair of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre; and a
former Business Woman and Teacher at The Fitness League. We'll be
toasting them and their achievements with a glass of wine after the
screening and discussion.
This was first published on www.VULGO.ie
