Veteran Contemporary dancer Tara Brandel, native of West Cork, brings 2 exciting solo dance theatre pieces to the Firkin Crane as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival
Cappaghlass was made in response to the current refugee crisis, using the rural Irish valley of Cappaghglass (where Tara was born and currenty lives) as a metaphor. Cappaghglass looks at displacement, otherness and migration, and our universal need for home.
Created during a 2 year Residency at Uillinn Arts Centre, after Tara’s recent Retrospective of 25 years of her choreography, Cappaghglass is a visually striking solo show mixing dance, spoken word, video projections and live vocals. Cappaghglass is currently touring to festivals and venues around Ireland and to festivals in Cairo, Germany and San Francisco.
Gawky and Awkward is a short solo that looks at one woman’s experince of having dyslexia, and how it has affected her as a professional dancer. Directed by dance artist with a disability Caroline Bowditch and with original composition by composer with a disability Charlotte White, Gawky and Awkward is a very personal story of courage and vulnerability.
‘In a time of displacement and migration what does it mean to be claimed by Place. I live in the valley I was born in. Holder of memories. Witness of change. What remains the same?
Having had two years to create work in the place I’m from, Cappaghglass reflects my very deep connection to West Cork, and the power as an artist of making work within one’s own local community. Cappaghglass reflects on the refugee crisis, our connnection to the land, local West Cork history, and our collective feelings of belonging and displacement.’
(Tara Bandel on Cappaghglass)
‘Whether you see dyslexia as a disability or not, it affects your daily life, and you have to get to a place of excepting it for its foibles, what it gives you, and what it takes away – the way it interrupts your life… in that way it is so like love.’ (Caroline Bowditch, Director of Gawky and Awkward)
Production Credits:
Cappaghglass
Choreographer and Performer Tara Brandel
Original cello composition Lea Miklodi
Traditional Sean Nós song about Fatnet Lighthouse Siobhán Ni Dhuinnin
Vocals, text, video projection and costume Tara Brandel
Production Rónan MacRaois
Funded by Arts Council Dance Residency award to Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre and Cork County Council
Gawky and Awkward
Choreographed and Performed by Tara Brandel
Directed by Caroline Bowditch
Original Composition Charlotte White
Sound Sculpture Colm Rooney
Lighting Design Kevin Smith
Made at an Arts Access Central Australia Residency, Alice Springs, Australia. Funded by the Arts Council and Cork County Council and supported by the Firkin Crane.