Theatre Forum makes case against cutbacks

Everyone is understandably apprehensive about how the sins of the banks may impact on the rest of us. And among many working in the arts, having finally got back on their feet after the devastating effects of quite a small cut in the arts budget in 2002, there's a real sense of déjà vu.

For whatever reason, arts bodies have never been great at organised lobbying and active promotion of their case for commitment to cultural support - as pointed out by outgoing Arts Council member Theo Dorgan on these pages recently. Maybe people think that the benefits of the arts are obvious. And perhaps they should be, but it doesn't hurt to point out the severe impact that even small cutbacks can have.

While visual arts, literature and music organisations don't seem too vocal on the issue, Theatre Forum has encouraged its members to write to their TDs and the Minister - and apparently some strong personal submissions have been sent. A high-powered delegation from representative body Theatre Forum (Fiach Mac Conghail, Pauline McLynn, Fergal McGrath, Johnny Hanrahan, and Theatre Forum's Tania Banotti) is to meet the Minister for Arts, Martin Cullen, on October 1st.

This is peak season for theatre, as the Fringe winds down and the Theatre Festival opens next Thursday, and it seems an apt time for the Irish Theatre Institute to finally open the doors to its spanking new home. The battle to get a proper base has been long and hard, but the institute has finally moved to a refurbished four-storey Georgian building at 17 Eustace Street, with the help of Temple Bar Cultural Trust and the Arts Council. It's like going from a cramped, damp bedsit to a gorgeous new home, especially for co-directors Siobhán Bourke and Jane Daly, who first set up Theatre Shop in 1994. It'll allow the institute to give a better service to both Irish and international companies and artists, including meeting facilities and resources, a research room, wireless internet access and subsidised "hot desks".

The institute also launched irishtheatreonline.com, an Arts Council-funded, free online database of freelance Irish theatre practitioners, with profiles of actors, directors, designers, producers, and so on. As Arts Council director Mary Cloake commented, "gone are the days when you'd just ask around in the Norseman".

Martin Mansergh, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Arts, was charming, donnish and modest while officially opening the new base, talking about the institute's work, the 300 year history of the building, and, in an aside, marvelling at how there are apparently about 80 theatres in Dublin - or at least he recalled that being claimed in a Dáil debate on the Intoxicating Liquor Bill. In another aside, and more seriously, Mansergh declared: "I do approve of the arm's-length relationship between the Government and the arts. I think the Arts Council does a very good job." And he said he was not aware of anyone who wants to change that arm's-length relationship.

Bessie for Laurie

They are known as the Bessies, but the full title - The New York Dance and Performance Awards - does more justice to Laurie Uprichard, director of the Dublin Dance Festival, who on Monday night was given a special citation for her contribution to contemporary dance and performance, writes Michael Seaver. Before coming to Dublin, Uprichard was artistic director of New York's Danspace Project, where over 15 years she developed a reputation as an artist-centred programmer.

"The award was a complete surprise," she says. Although it was hinted about a fortnight ago, she was unable to travel to New York and accept the award in person. Instead she was looking at dance shows in the Dublin Fringe Festival, and had a "quiet celebration" on Monday night. "It is quite an honour to be recognised by your peers," she says. "There's no subtext to this award. It's as pure a recognition as you can get and I've always noticed how prominent it is in artists' biographies." These include Robert Wilson, Mark Morris, William Forsythe and Trisha Brown.

"Not only was she an incomparable visionary as a presenter, but she became the heart of New York's dance community," said Steven Greco, executive director of Dance Theater Workshop and chair of the Bessie committee. "Her encouragement helped many artists to get to their next stage of competence."

Also recognised on Monday night were choreographer Jodi Melnick, a frequent collaborator with Dublin-based Rex Levitates Dance Company, and the uncompromising Umwelt, by French choreographer Maguy Marin, which was performed at the Cork Opera House during Cork 2005.

• Dance Theatre of Ireland starts its Korean tour today, in a co-production with the Now Dance Company Korea, with both companies' dancers and musicians joining in a double bill of new work premiering at the Seoul Performing Arts Festival and then touring in Ireland and Korea this autumn. The ambitious collaboration is a first between Ireland and Korea, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Following residencies in Ireland and in Korea this spring and summer, their two new productions, Parallel Horizons and Under the Roof, will be performed by a combined ensemble of eight dancers and four musicians, with the original music performed live, and choreography by Dance Theatre's Robert Connor and Loretta Yurick, and Now Dance Company artistic director In-Young Sohn. The Irish tour starts on November 12th at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire.

• If you've ever watched dancers and fancied doing it yourself, here's your chance to dance with a professional company. CoisCéim Dance Theatre, whose new show, Dodgems, opens the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival on Thursday, is offering people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to try out steps from the show. Anyone aged 16 and up can learn the choreography and explore themes from the show at workshops next Saturday, September 27th, and Sunday, October 5th (both 11am-12.30pm at the CoisCéim Studio at 14 Sackville Place, Dublin 1). No previous dance experience is necessary. CoisCéim is also offering younger people (ages 15-25) a chance to dance on a more permanent basis. Auditions for its Creative Steps programme will take place from 2pm to 6pm tomorrow at the studios. The groups will meet on Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm, starting on October 1st, for a membership fee of €300.

The show must go on, and it did. Randolf SD and producer (and incoming Dublin Fringe director) Róise Goan's show La Voix Humaine had run successfully at the James Joyce Centre on North Great George's Street for several performances as part of the Fringe before a crisis hit on Tuesday. A minor fire escape issue arose that afternoon at the centre and the venue had to close for a few days for some work to be carried out. Luckily for La Voix Humaine's cast and crew, James Joyce Centre director Laura Barnes had already found an alternative venue by the time she rang Goan at 4pm. Thankfully the set (a bed) was straightforward, as everything had to move, lock stock and barrel, to the Dublin Writers Museum, around the corner, which had come to the rescue. "It was a bit hairy, and there was a lot of heavy lifting, but everyone worked together, and the show went up on time at 9pm. The James Joyce Centre and the Writers Museum were both really helpful," says Goan.