BY DAVID BOLGER & CHRISTOPHER ASH
“Strictly meets poststructuralist linguistics…” We were delighted to return to Dance Base for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 with a new evolution of this multi-layered exploration of non-verbal communication. Each day saw a spontaneous performance created in real-time from live interviews, photography, video projection, music and choreography.
REVIEWS
“… It shifts in the mind:
A strange gameshow with social media stars;
a high-tech new media gym;
a 24 hour news channel broadcast with the sound turned down;
a dream where all the characters are you… Strictly meets poststructuralist linguistics…” – CIRCA Art Magazine | Susan Thomson
“Blurring the lines between dancing and body language, it created both a fascinating exhibition and memorable performances.” – Irish Times | Michael Seaver
“Body Language is beautiful – like stepping inside a photo album. To experience it is to float on the surface of the ocean – safe, supported by the brine and blue.” – Miro Magazine | Josephine Balfour
“Body Language offers a tantalising glimpse into a stranger’s inner life” – Evening Standard





ABOUT
Is it possible to choreograph a work based entirely on body language, being true to the spontaneous nature of our physical behaviour? For Body Language, CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, David Bolger set himself a task with this question.
“It is said that over 65% of all our communication is non-verbal, made up of our gestures, posture, how we sound, how we look. As a choreographer I am naturally inquisitive about body language. The tells and clues that are sent out from our limbic system (the emotional brain) are unplanned, natural, honest. They make up our everyday kinetic conversations, which are naturally organised but not pre-planned. Choreography is dance-writing. A choreographer is someone who organises and designs sequences of movement patterns and creates choreography by writing with the body. Dancing is body language and body language is dancing.” -David Bolger
UK PREMIERE | DANCE BASE, EDINBURGH | 2019
DANCE BASE | The Home of Dance on the Fringe | 14-16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2JU
DATES 15-25 August 2019
TIME 2.40pm
TICKETS /
edfringe.com
Presented with the support of Culture Ireland.
CREDITS
DIRECTION/CHOREOGRAPHY David Bolger
DESIGNER/MEDIA ARTIST Christopher Ash
COMPOSER Michael Fleming
COSTUME DESIGNER Arran Murphy
DANCE ARTISTS Lee Clayden, Ivonne Kalter, Jonathan Mitchell, and Emma O’Kane
ABOUT THE ARTISTS



PREMIERE | RHA GALLERY, DUBLIN | 2017
In the first collaboration of its kind, CoisCéim Dance Theatre and RHA Gallery presented a multimedia exploration of body language in a durational project that evolved over 3 exciting weeks. Each day brought a unique, immersive experience, as a new art work was created from live interviews, choreography, video projection, photography, music and dance.
This open, durational performance at the RHA Gallery was the culmination of 4 years of creative development. In parallel with BODY LANGUAGE, BROADREACH conducted ARMOUR, a participation performance project led by Philippa Donnellan.
CREDITS
DIRECTION/CHOREOGRAPHY David Bolger
DESIGNER/MEDIA ARTIST Christopher Ash
COMPOSER Michael Fleming
COSTUME DESIGNER Arran Murphy
DANCE ARTISTS Justine Cooper, Ivonne Kalter, Jonathan Mitchell, Emma O’Kane and Jack Webb.
GUEST ARTISTS Deirdre O’Leary (Clarinet) and the La La La Choir led by Sam Kavanagh
PRODUCTION MANAGER Lisa Mahony
STAGE MANAGER Corentin West
INTERVIEWEE LIAISON Léa Weber
At the RHA | 2017
The Body Language project was an exploration and interrogation of non-verbal communication in the digital, aural and physical realms. It was a process. With choreography, video/photography by artist Christopher Ash, music by Composer Michael Fleming, and dance artists Justine Cooper, Jonathan Mitchell, Ivonne Kalter, Emma O’Kane and Jack Webb, it was a process of detection and consisted of three unique cycles made up of DAILY, WEEKLY, and RESIDUAL:
- The genesis of the DAILY CYCLE was an interview with a member of the public. The subject’s body language was captured on film and became a physical score made up of still images. This was followed by live composition in real time with artists in the process of CREATION as they extracted meaning and responded to the physical score. The cycle ended with a PERFORMANCE of the new choreography, film, photography and music.
- The WEEKLY CYCLE culminated each Sunday in the gallery with a look back at the interviews from the past week followed by a new CREATION and PERFORMANCE. Each week saw new developments as the work diversified and grew. On Sunday 3 December a final presentation took place.
- The RESIDUAL CYCLE, from 4 December to 10 December, was an installation reflecting the lifecycle of the work.
Each day brought more interviews, choreography and other artists, and was an opportunity for you to see something new.
(PLEASE NOTE | Times are approximate. Cameras were live in the gallery and images may be used as part of the project.):
17 November – 3 December 2017
- Mondays
11am-5pm: PREMIERE SCREENING OF LATEST WORK – Video and sound installation of yesterday’s filmed choreographic response. - Tuesdays/Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays
From 11:00am | PREMIERE SCREENING OF LATEST WORK
From 1:30pm | CREATION & PERFORMANCE – Live composition in real time.
From 3:00pm | SCREENING OF TODAY’S INTERVIEW - NEW | Wednesdays | Gallery Open Late
From 11:00am | PREMIERE SCREENING OF LATEST WORK
From 6:00pm | CREATION & PERFORMANCE – Live composition in real time. - Sundays
From 12:00pm | PREMIERE SCREENING OF LATEST WORK
From 3:00pm | CULMINATION OF WEEKLY CYCLE | CREATION & PERFORMANCE with guest artists.
4 – 10 December, 11am-5pm (Sundays 12pm opening)
- Daily
SCREENING OF THE RESIDUAL CONTENT – Explore the video and sound installation of interviews and filmed choreographic responses.
Dublin Gallery Weekend 2017 Events
In conversation: David Bolger and Christopher Ash with Amanda Coogan and Fiona Newell
24 November 2017 | 4.00-5.00pm | Admission Free | RHA Gallery I
This exciting interdisciplinary event brought together a number of voices to talk about dance, visual art, performance and the psychology of sensory perception. We were delighted to welcome performance artist Amanda Coogan and Professor Fiona Newell, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, to engage in a conversation with choreographer David Bolger and designer/media artist Christopher Ash about Body Language.
RHA Learning Event | Creating Body Language
25 November 2017 | 3.30 – 4.30pm | Admission Free, SOLD OUT | RHA Gallery I
David Bolger invited children to join him and the cast of professional dancers to explore body language and ways of communicating through dance. Using specially designed ACTIVITY SHEETS participants were guided through a range of fun movement-based tasks and a relay process with others in the group. Together, participants created moves and short sequences and discovered more about how you use your body to express yourself!
Open to all children aged 6 – 10, no dance experience necessary.
DEVELOPMENT TO DATE
2016 Development Notes
David Bolger and Christopher Ash came back together in the CoisCéim studio for a week in November 2016, this time working with dancer Ryan O’Neill and non dancers. These sessions concentrated on stripping back the conundrum of choreography (planned movement) and body language (unplanned movement) to consider the structure of the performance mechanisms. Using multuple projectors with live and recorded feeds these sessions also aimed to define the overall form of the final work.