A Dance Concerto
Available for touring to involve local community members
Choreography and direction | Laura Murphy
Sound sore | Irene Buckley
A Dance Concerto is based on Laban Movement Choirs of the 1930s, features both professional and pre-professional dancers with an inter-generational cast of 40 persons from Cork city community. Tin cans generate music and movement that evolves from industrial beginnings through mass production to become something more familiar from our everyday lives. (The tin cans of food used in A Dance Concerto were donated to Cork Penny Dinners, along with those handed in by the audience as part of their entrance fee)
Available for touring to involve local community members
Choreography and direction | Laura Murphy
Sound sore | Irene Buckley
A Dance Concerto is based on Laban Movement Choirs of the 1930s, features both professional and pre-professional dancers with an inter-generational cast of 40 persons from Cork city community. Tin cans generate music and movement that evolves from industrial beginnings through mass production to become something more familiar from our everyday lives. (The tin cans of food used in A Dance Concerto were donated to Cork Penny Dinners, along with those handed in by the audience as part of their entrance fee)
Press Quotes
“Bravura” is a word that could also be applied to the first presentation of the festival.... Choreographer Laura Murphy and composer Irene Buckley create a sequence of continuous movement, hypnotic in its pace and in the visual effect of its ranks of black-clad dancers, all obedient to an orchestra of tins.
It is splendidly original; one doesn’t really expect food cans to be quite so active."
Mary Leland | The Irish Times, 24 June 2014
"...As a community project, this was a success even before it premiered, since it drew in members of the public who might never have thought of dance before, let alone participated in a performance.
The capacity audience also testified to that success. Lively toddlers lay, chins on hands, watching every movement with delight. Older watchers were fascinated by the ways in which sound could be drawn from such basic, everyday objects. A violin bow evoked a strange wail; multiple, soft tapping was a ground base that echoed a pulse beat. The cans weren’t just a quirky idea, says Laura Murphy. They emphasised food, the need for it, the lack of it.
An important aspect of the show was the use of tins of food as exchange for tickets. In the foyer beforehand, the trolleys piled high with offerings showed that the public had taken to this with delight. All the barter goods will be donated to Cork Penny Dinners, incidentally — another strong community link. Here is one arts project genuinely reaching out to the people...."
Jo Kerrigan | A Dance Concerto, Irish Examiner, 26 June 2014
"...Choreographer Laura Murphy locates the humanity in mass production, and music where others hear noise.
A Dance Concerto presents the humble can as never seen before."
Stephen D'Arcy Collins | Dance Voices
“Bravura” is a word that could also be applied to the first presentation of the festival.... Choreographer Laura Murphy and composer Irene Buckley create a sequence of continuous movement, hypnotic in its pace and in the visual effect of its ranks of black-clad dancers, all obedient to an orchestra of tins.
It is splendidly original; one doesn’t really expect food cans to be quite so active."
Mary Leland | The Irish Times, 24 June 2014
"...As a community project, this was a success even before it premiered, since it drew in members of the public who might never have thought of dance before, let alone participated in a performance.
The capacity audience also testified to that success. Lively toddlers lay, chins on hands, watching every movement with delight. Older watchers were fascinated by the ways in which sound could be drawn from such basic, everyday objects. A violin bow evoked a strange wail; multiple, soft tapping was a ground base that echoed a pulse beat. The cans weren’t just a quirky idea, says Laura Murphy. They emphasised food, the need for it, the lack of it.
An important aspect of the show was the use of tins of food as exchange for tickets. In the foyer beforehand, the trolleys piled high with offerings showed that the public had taken to this with delight. All the barter goods will be donated to Cork Penny Dinners, incidentally — another strong community link. Here is one arts project genuinely reaching out to the people...."
Jo Kerrigan | A Dance Concerto, Irish Examiner, 26 June 2014
"...Choreographer Laura Murphy locates the humanity in mass production, and music where others hear noise.
A Dance Concerto presents the humble can as never seen before."
Stephen D'Arcy Collins | Dance Voices
