On Saturday afternoon in Space Upstairs at the Project, the Association of Professional Dancers in Ireland showcased the work of five young people in their Irish Choreographers' New Works Platform 2000. These were unashamedly works-in-progress, developed during 30 hours of studio time under the mentorship of Finola Cronin, dancer-in-residence at UCD and formerly with Pina Bausch and her Tanz Theater of Wuppertal.
Of the five pieces, those showing most promise were by J J Formento and Rionach Ni Neill. Both were basically solo pieces and had the advantage of being performed by choreographers who happened to be fine and experienced dancers. The first, The Apology, illustrates the release obtainable through the difficult process of making amends. Performed mainly in silence, it showed Formento has already developed a highly personal vocabulary.
The second, Seandalaiocht/Archaeology, shows Ni Neill tracing the footsteps of her heritage and her concern at the possible loss of her native tongue. This piece was the only one to use music as a major component, though speech was also used from three on-stage readers of Irish. It is arguable that recorded voices would have been equally effective.
Of the remaining pieces, all using recorded speech, two were solos: Julie Lockett moving to a recorded stream of consciousness about the preoccupations of a 30-year-old in Right Now and in Hungry?, and Rebecca Walter moving against, rather than with, the episodic recording of a cooking recipe intercut with dictionary definitions of cooking terms.
Deborah McDowell in Am I Making Myself Clear? - the only one to use other dancers in her tale of communication problems - somewhat overburdened herself with furnishings and changes of location.
