TOO often in the past Irish dance companies have suffered from an acute shortage of men, so the arrival of the all male dance company Mandance in 1990 was an interesting development. Founded by choreographer Paul Johnson, the company has concentrated on projecting the male experience, courageously confronting controversial issues and embracing dance, theatre and politics within an intimate and autobiographical framework.
Training as a scholarship student at the Laban Centre in London from 1980 to 1985, Johnson performed with most Irish contemporary dance companies, from the late lamented Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre (1986-88) to Daghdha Dance Company during the 1990s, as well as dancing in individual productions with many others, including Rubato Ballet (1989), contact (1992) and Irish Modern Dance Theatre (1993). He has also worked in multimedia projects and collaborated with theatre director Sarah Jan Scaile, choreographer Cyndi Lee and video artist Pauline Cummins.
As early as 1983, however, he began choreographing - initially for himself in solo pieces but soon for groups, always incorporating release and improvisational techniques. Working in London, Belfast and Edinburgh as well as Dublin, in 1989 he was awarded both a Scottish Arts Council bursary and a work study scholarship to the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab in New York. Then in 1990 he began collaborating with composer Eugene Murphy and Mandance was born.
Since then he has created three works for the company, A Curious Misunderstanding, The Landscaping of Me and Sweat, touring them throughout Ireland and at festivals in Aberdeen, Barcelona, Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Paris and Tarragona.
Next week his fourth piece for the company will be premiered, from Tuesday until Saturday in the Project Arts Centre, where much of his work has been seen. Beautiful Tomorrow, developed with the help of an Arts Council Choreographic Research/Development Project Award, explores intense, intimate relationships between men, drawing on personal experience and collective myths about accepted male behaviour between brothers, friends, lovers and foes.
Working as usual with composer Eugene Murphy, Johnson will perform the piece with two other male dancers, Paris Payne and Danny Thompson. Payne initially trained in martial arts before studying dance at the Coventry Centre for Performing Arts and working with V-Tol and Daghdha, while Thompson was an amateur champion boxer before studying at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and working with Man Act, Ludus Dance Company and Daghdha.