Dublin Dance Festival opens today

Dublin Dance Festival opens today, Tuesday 16th May, and runs till Sunday 28th May, offering the chance to discover dance performances from world-renowned artists, with a programme that invites audiences to be open and courageous, to celebrate love and our shared humanity, and to create new memories together.

The festival is bringing dance to Dublin venues from the Abbey Theatre to Wood Quay Amphitheatre, with world premieres, free activities, a new commission for children, explorations of sustainability, statements of empathy, and celebrations of the power of community.

The festival continues to explore new formats to engage with our city by inviting all our citizens without exclusion to join in and participate.

Dancers Ghaliah Conroy, Marion Cronin, Michael McEvoy, Amir Sabra, Emily Terndrup at ‘Kindred’. PHOTO: Mark Stedman

Dance and technology combine in Kindred, inspiring us to think about our relationship with nature, with ourselves, with one another, and with the planet.

Exploring nature and human connection, this immensely topical new digital dance work, commissioned from Dublin Dance Festival by ESB, brings together one of Ireland’s most celebrated choreographers Liz Roche, in collaboration with the award-winning Lightscape, who use cutting edge technology to create spectacular experiences for audiences across the world.

The resulting innovative public installation will be free and open to all to experience daily from 19th May – 28th May at ESB’s new sustainable headquarters on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Street.

In free performances at Wood Quay Amphitheatre, Finnish choreographer Taneli Törma will present his meditative work ALIEN created with 9 local dancers, combining movement language from clubbing culture and traditional folk dance.

The Abbey stage will be home to three superb, large-scale performances.

The Köln Concert, a brave and tender celebration of genres, gender roles and personal triumph from Trajal Harrell / Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble, will open the festival.

This elegantly subversive piece, inspired by voguing, ballroom culture and iconic jazz,  interprets the most famous solo piano recording of all time, The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett.

Oona Doherty, one of Europe’s major choreographic talents, and former DDF Dance Artist in Residence, returns to Dublin Dance Festival and the Abbey stage with Navy Blue, her most ambitious work to date.

Featuring music from Sergeï Rachmaninoff and Jamie xx, this compelling new work, created by Doherty in collaboration with a cast of twelve exceptional dancers, explores crisis, redemption, and re-birth.

Closing the festival, LOVETRAIN2020 by Emanuel Gat Dance Company is an exuberant contemporary “musical” for 13 dancers, set to the hits of 80s duo Tears for Fears. Gat, one of the most renowned choreographers of his generation, returns to DDF with this feast for the senses, with sumptuous baroque-style costumes and dramatic chiaroscuro lighting adding layers of texture and colour to his exhilarating celebration of connection, life and love.

At the Complex is KING | SHRINE, a ceremonial performance and installation work by renowned choreographer Emma Martin celebrating the end of the world as we know it, and imagining a new beginning.

Project Arts Centre will be home to work from five artists during the festival, including

[The Prometheus Project]: The Archivist by award-winning Irish choreographer and current DDF Artist in Residence Luke Murphy, an immersive installation that follows one character in the final hours of life as they know it, and Best Regards from Italian dancer and choreographer Marco D’Agostin is a touching tribute to his beloved mentor – the irrepressible and radical performer, Nigel Charnock, co-founder of DV8 Physical Theatre.

To find out more, and to book tickets, please see dublindancefestival.ie

Tickets can also be booked in person, or over the phone, at the Festival Box Office, Festival House, 12 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Tel: +353 1 673 0660