Dance choreographer and innovator Cathy O'Kennedy's 'Delicious Death' fuses modern dance with an old-fashioned Agatha Christie style murder mystery, writes Christie Taylor
Cathy O'Kennedy's gift for fusing technique, storytelling and a sense of humour distinguishes her artistry. By bringing life experiences to her choreography - and requiring the same of her dancers - O'Kennedy creates a window into contemporary Irish dance revealing an energetic explosion happening here.
Her latest premiere, Delicious Death, inspired by Agatha Christie's mystery novels, harnesses that energy. O'Kennedy plans to invent other dances prompted by literature, music, life experience and wonder. Yet while some choreographers pray for such inspiration, O'Kennedy must pace the manner in which these ideas come out.
Her passion for mystery novels simmered years ago, prompting this dance. But instead of diving straight into a murder mystery dance project, O'Kennedy began what turned out to be a trilogy of works, starting with one about love, followed by one about birth, and finally Delicious Death - named for a birthday cake in the Christie novel A Murder is Announced. This work combines intrigue and audience involvement, set to a score of popular music.
O'Kennedy began her training in ballet, and taught in Wexford where she grew up dancing. She moved to London as a 19-year-old, completing dance teacher training through the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus, before moving to Copenhagen in Denmark to become a student of the Bournonville technique. Throughout those years, O'Kennedy understood the value of individual expression built on a strong dance foundation. It fuelled her work in developing dancers today, prompting her to spread contemporary dance throughout Ireland with her current company Fluxusdance.
She now unites dancers from around the country and world as if they have spoken the same dance language forever. Working with performers of all training levels, O'Kennedy creates evening-length performances combining music, choreographic structure and links to other art forms. She builds on dancers' improvisation so that the movement connects to their personal experiences.
Just as performers helped craft its composition, she allows viewers to participate in Delicious Death's outcome by searching for clues in the lobby. Through editing their improvised movements, O'Kennedy invented a dance straight from these dancers' bodies. Instead of foisting her own way of dancing on to them - a process popular with many choreographers today - she uses a style that is comfortable for everyone.
Her method builds confidence and a strong team. Jen Fleenor began training as a dancer in the United States at a young age, and marvels at O'Kennedy's ability to develop new performers. Fleenor and the other members of Fluxusdance appreciate O'Kennedy's way of working with individual abilities, and they believe their having a hand in the creation of the dance has helped them become better performers. Because the company rehearses for as long as seven hours a day - equivalent to rehearsal schedules for most professional ballet companies - performers in Fluxusdance have time to investigate the material they create.
Their dancing is void of the awkward style that so often emerges when varying backgrounds and schools of thought come together. They move like a tight-knit group, attentive to each other's needs and supporting each other when necessary. Some dance companies might take years to develop this kind of relationship. Fluxusdance has instigated it through months of intensive rehearsal.
"I've practiced this craft for a long time. It is my profession," O'Kennedy says, explaining how she relishes incorporating each performer's gifts into the choreography. Sometimes it succeeds, other times she must reinvent, but O'Kennedy embraces chance like a clue in a mystery novel and uses it to her advantage.
Intriguing characters emerge from this kind of work, and with them comes an interesting plot. In Delicious Death, whether firing imaginary guns or knocking each other to the ground, the dancers' actions initiate conflict. From there, O'Kennedy concocts a series of scenes. "We are the generators of the movement," Fleenor says, "so each voice is created out of validity."
Three Fluxusdance performers currently earn their living through dance. Fleenor left a career in New York to work with O'Kennedy, Maurice Fraga works with the Canadian company O Vertigo Dance most of the year, and Lucy Dundon trained with O'Kennedy from age 7. The others balance dance with other professions, integrating it into their lives.
Because of a choreography session O'Kennedy once taught, Seamus Dunbar and several other performers launched DeFacto Dance, a collective of dancers who now drive from Manorhamilton to participate in Fluxusdance's performances. They bring personal talents to Delicious Death such as Tina Pomer's t'ai chi skill and Dunbar's background as a sculptor.
"It is about accepting people as who they are and using that," O'Kennedy says. "If I had used only professionally trained dancers, this would have been a completely different dance."
So many dance companies throughout the world understand the importance of building new choreographic vocabularies and new audiences. O'Kennedy certainly does, and goes about it not only through audience involvement but also by working with participants from diverse backgrounds.
While some companies bridge the gap between those who love dance and those who don't understand it by asking members of the community to step on to stage for brief moments, Fluxusdance involves novice performers throughout the creative process. Then when the doors open on the actual show, viewers become part of the project, too. Delicious Death audiences have a hand in whodunnit, receiving reporters' notebooks and pencils instead of programmes. They step into the murder room once the movement starts.
Through such unexpected plot twists and turns, Delicious Death mixes mystery, seduction and plenty of secrets. Dance cements the action, so no matter how many choreographic tools O'Kennedy might have discarded the way a detective would red herrings, she still relies on tools she trusts - input from performers, external inspiration and belief in the choreographic process. Then she hands things over to chance, just like an investigator cracking a case, and tunes in to her own judgment.
"It's about craft and inspiration," she says. "You can always rely on one thing - the craft will always be there. But the inspiration, you can't ever plan on that. I just have to accept what comes and trust that I know how to make it work."
Delicious Death premieres at Project Arts Centre from August 18-21 and will also be performed at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre on August 28, the Riverbank Arts Centre on August 31 and September 1, in Linenhall, Co Mayo on September 4 and in Oxmantown Hall, Co Offaly, on September 25.
Christie Taylor, former dance critic for the Boston Herald, is now a freelance writer based in Houston, Texas, who has contributed to Dance Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald and the New York Times.
