Dublin Dance Festival

Dublin Dance Festival is the leading dance event on the Irish arts calendar. Each year in May, the Festival brings together dance artists and choreographers from across the world to share vibrant contemporary dance with audiences in Ireland.

For the 10th anniversary of Dublin Dance Festival in 2014, the British Council supported a number of performances and exhibitions. Find out more about the events below.

Gandini Juggling – Smashed

4 crockery sets, 9 jugglers, 80 apples.

Funny and inventive, Smashed is a sensational mix of skills and theatricality with a soundtrack featuring music from Tammy Wynette to Music Hall to Bach.

First premiered in the National Theatre in London and featured as part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase in 2013, it has since been performed across the world.

Inspired by the great choreographer Pina Bausch, a series of filmic scenes explore conflict, tense relationships, lost love and quaint afternoon tea in a deliciously mesmerising fusion of choreography, circus and theatre.

Watch a video of the British Council presented Indonesia tour.

Ponies Don’t Play Football (ponydance)

The irrepressible ponydance returned to Dublin Dance Festival with a gallop to present their biggest show to date, in collaboration with Belfast band Uncle Social, led by Donal Scullion. With a cast of eleven performers including six fine musicians, the show premiered to standing ovations at the MAC in Belfast.

Whilst retaining their usual love for comedy and chaos, the show delved into love, sex, relationships and more costumes from Penneys. It featured original live music and completely unoriginal music too, near nudity and a dash of genius.

Watch a trailer for the show.

Without

A seven-screen film projection with sound, capturing a panoramic view of the City of Derry & its inhabitants. This unique and hauntingly beautiful video installation, directed by acclaimed choreographer, artist and film-maker Rosemary Lee, was the culmination of her year-long collaboration with Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company in Derry.

Filmed in 2013 from the city walls, it features 400 local inhabitants – from tea-dancers to skateboarders and school children to cyclists – as they dance, move, glide and reclaim the city streets, regardless of real and imagined boundaries. It also features a specially commissioned sound score by artist, theatre maker and composer Graeme Miller.

Dance With Camera

An exhibition that explored the relationship that the camera has with the choreographers and performers who make dance for film. The exhibition featured art works on film that exemplify the ways the camera is recording moving, dancing bodies. The camera lens is used not merely as a recording device, but as stage and audience simultaneously. Dance with Camera included work by Ríonach Ní Néill, Rosemary Lee and screenings of a selection of shorts from the RTÉ Dance on the Box series.

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