Funded by an Arts Council of Ireland IRIS Award
From July 2022

CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS is an important new venture that takes CoisCéim Broadreach international – uniting us with two European dance trailblazers – OperaEstate/CSC, (Comune di Bassano, Italy) and Le Gymnase CDCN (France) – in a project that connects choreography, nature and care.    

An artist-led, residency initiative funded by Arts Council Ireland, it involves the following, distinctive, socially engaged dance artists: Vittoria Caneva (Italy), Marion Carriau (France), Justine Cooper (Ireland), Chiara Frigo (Italy), Aoife McAtamney (Ireland) and Betty Tchomanga (France) to explore fresh ways to connect with the public and increase access to the artform.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #6

16 – 28 OCTOBER 2023 | Residency at OperaEstate/CSC, Bassano – Aoife McAtamney, Irish dance artist.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #5

14-29 JULY 2023 | Residency at OperaEstate/CSC, Bassano – Betty Tchomanga, French dance artist.

ARTISTS’ GATHERING

14 – 16 JULY 2023 | Bassano del Grappa – a two day series of facilitated workshops with dramaturg Monica Gillette.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #4

3 – 16 JULY 2023 | Residency at OperaEstate/CSC, Bassano – Justine Cooper, Irish dance artist.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #3

15 – 25 MAY 2023 | Residency at CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Dublin – Marion Carriau, French dance artist.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #2

20 – 31 MARCH 2023 | Residency at Le Gymnase CDCN, Roubaix – Chiara Frigo, Italian dance artist.

ARTIST RESIDENCY #1

21 NOVEMBER – 3 DECEMBER 2022 | Inaugural Residency at CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Dublin – Vittoria Caneva, Italian dance artist. Culminated in a public sharing on 2 December with Irish artists Justine Cooper and Aoife McAtamney.

ARTISTS’ GATHERING

22 – 23 JULY 2022 | Bassano del Grappa – a two day series of facilitated workshops and attending performances involving citizens and professional artists in public, civic and cultural spaces.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Vittoria Caneva is an Italian dance artist. She graduated in 2018 from the Triennio Professionale di Danza Contemporanea del Balletto di Roma. During her education she has performed creations by Francesca Pennini, Pablo Tapia Leyton and Ivan Perez. 

In 2020 she collaborated with Masako Matsushita on the archiving project Diary of a Move. She is an active freelancer across Italian and European festivals and residency centers.

She has worked as a performer for Pietro Marullo, Andrea Rampazzo, Beatrice Bresolin, Giorgia Lolli, Masako Matsushita, Kinkaleri, Yasmeen Godder, Nora Chipaumire, Melanie Démers. She is a founding member of Base9, artistic community that collaboratively creates choreographic, participatory and laboratorial projects. Since 2019 she is a Dancewell teacher – Movement and Research for Parkinson’s. She is a finalist for DNAppunticoreografici 2022, as part of Romaeuropa Festival.

Formée au CNDC d’Angers, je collabore depuis en tant qu’interprète avec différents artistes: Mohammed Shafik, Les Gens d’uterpan, Mylène Benoit, Julien Prévieux, Laurent Goldring et Arthur Perole. En 2011, je rencontre Joanne Leighton avec je collabore étroitement depuis. Je créé Je suis tous les dieux , mon premier solo en décembre 2018. La pièce est recrée dans une version jeune public en 2021. Chêne Centenaire, duo écrit et interprété par Magda Kachouche et moi-même voit le jour dans sa version intérieure en décembre 2021. En 2022, Magda Kachouche et moi-même créons une version extérieure de Chêne Centenaire ainsi que Paysan.ne.s., pièce participative que nous envisageons comme la troisième arborescence de Chêne Centenaire.

J’ envisage la création chorégraphique comme un lieu d’ouverture sur la fiction favorisant la réinvention des corps. Le tissage de la danse à la pratique vocale et aux arts plastiques est au coeur de ma démarche artistique. Je conçois des oeuvres modulables pensées pour entrer en dialogue avec l’environnement dans lequel elles s’inscrivent.

Par mon travail, je souhaite défendre l’entrelacement des liens, l’attachement au monde, aux écosystèmes et aux espèces. C’est pourquoi, chacune de mes créations questionne les mythes qui construisent notre rapport au monde. Le mythe comme une construction imaginaire qui exprime par le sensible et le symbole les valeurs fondamentales d’une communauté à la recherche de sa cohésion.

Originally from New Zealand, Justine has been based in Ireland as a freelance dance artist, teacher and choreographer since 2008. Currently lecturing at The University of Limerick in contemporary dance and choreography & most recently performing as a dance artist with Liz Roche Company, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Justine Doswell, Mary Wycherly, Oona Doherty, United Fall, Maria Nilsson Waller, Anu Productions, Junk Ensemble. Justine was a
member of Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre from 1998-2000.

Choreography credits include FOLDS OF THE CRANE that was presented as part of Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival 2015 (nominated for Spirit of the Fringe & Best Lighting & Design), at Dublin Dance Festival 2016 and What’s Next Festival 2018 and movement direction on THE MISFITS by Corn Exchange (Nominated for Best Movement Direction, Irish Theatre Awards, 2018)

A certified teacher of hatha yoga and quan yin qi gong, Justine has a strong interest in the healing arts, which led to the birth of a new project LITTLE FLOWER in 2020. LITTLE FLOWER creates locally sourced, handmade botanical skincare, workshops and bespoke care packages.

In her dancing practice the question “how can the dancing body be a channel for the primal/divine ~ ancient/future?” has always been a guiding rod along with the companion query of “how do we tend to the body of the planet”.

Choreographer and performer, co-founder of Zebra Cultural Zoo, Chiara Frigo has developed her artistic interest in the field of dance and performing arts. Having graduated in molecular biology, she has taken part in international research projects collaborating with Amsterdam’s SNDO, Vancouver’s Dance Center,London’s The Place, Rotterdam’s Dansateliers, Copenhagen’s Dansescenen, and Madrid’s Paso a 2-Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid.

Her choreographic research has focused increasingly on the connection between movement and dramaturgy. In 2010 she started to collaborate with Montreal’s Circuit Est choreographic centre, where she has been a guest for production residencies since. Her poetics delved deeper and deeper into the political and social environment: her piece West End reflects on the decline of the Western world and resorts to a number of different languages. The wish to reach new audiences and involve the local communities led her to create Ballroom, an intergenerational project that was presented in Iceland, in the Netherlands, as well as in numerous Italian festivals. Her piece Himalaya marked the beginning of a research around the topics related to spirituality in arts.

She is currently involved in Blackbird, a community project inspired by art as a form of activism and collective creation; Miss Lala al Circo Fernando, a performance conceived for Marigia Maggipinto, a historic performer of Tanztheater Wuppertal, about the idea of a body as a living archive of memories. She curates video art projects, design projects, and is engaged in theatre collaborations.

Aoife McAtamney is a dancer/choreographer, musician, actor and teacher based in Dublin. She began a career as a dancer and choreographer producing work locally and internationally and since 2019, she has been touring with Oona Doherty as a vocalist and dancer for the performance ‘Lady Magma’ and dancing with choreographer Emma Martin in ‘Night Dances’. As an actor, Aoife can be seen in Paula Keohos TV documentary ‘The Devils In her’ and
also alongside Olwen Fouéré for BBCNI and TG4.

As a choreographer, she has been the recipient of numerous prizes and bursaries from the Arts Council and Culture Ireland and was Irelands first female lgbtq+ Aerowaves artist as part of the cohort of 2014 with her first solo Softer Swells – that subsequently toured internationally including to La Briqueterie in Vitry-sur-Seine and the Instances festival in Chalon-sur-Saône.

Her movement practice evolved to music, songwriting and soundscapes for performances and in early 2020 Aoife graduated with an MA (1st) in songwriting at the University of Limerick. Alongside their work in dance and choreography, Aoife coaches dancers and teaches workshops in vocal movement and cultivates a community arts practice developing investigations of gender, ancestry and nature. From 2020 – 2022 Aoife was the lead
movement artist for Dublin City Council Culture Company and participation practice credits with ageing bodies of culture include CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s Broadreach and now with Macushla Dance Group.

I was born in 1989 in a French region of Charente-Maritime. My father is Cameroonian and my mother is French. At the age of 9 I started my first lessons in modern jazz dance and classical dance and from 2004 to 2006 I studied in the Conservatoire de Bordeaux as well as with Alain Gonotey Cie Lullaby.

In 2007 I turned, particularly, towards contemporary dance and joined the choreographic artists course in Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers (CNDC) supervised by Emmanuelle Huynh. At the same time I kept on with my literary studies at Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle until 2014, where I got my master’s degree in Modern Literature.

I finished my CNDC Angers courses in 2009 and at the same time started my performance career with Emmanuelle Huynh (Cribles, Augures) and Alain Buffard (Tout va bien). Afterwards, I expanded my performance experience with choreographers of varying aesthetics: Raphaëlle Delaunay (Bitter Sugar), Fanny de Chaillé (Passage à l’acte), Gaël Sesboüé (Grammes), Éléonore Didier (Moi, mes copines, à l’instant où ça s’arrête), Anne Collod (Le parlement des Invisibles), Herman Diephuis (Clan ; Mix), Nina Santès (Hymen Hymne ; République Zombie).

Nonetheless, this experience is mainly influenced by my encounter and collaboration with Marlene Monteiro Freitas. We started working together in 2014 and still do today (D’ivoire et chair, les statues souffrent aussi ; Bacchantes, prélude pour une purge ; Mal Embriaguez Divina). Other artistic experiences continue to nourish my performance practice. In particular, those with the plastic artist Alex Ceccetti and also my lead role in Secteur IX B, a film of Mathieu K. Abonnenc that he presented at Venice Biennale in 2015.

Since my graduation from CNDC in Angers 2009 I never dissociated the practice of the performer from that of the creator. The latter will take different forms: in 2012 I created –A– ou il a sûrement peur de l’eau le poisson in collaboration with musician Romain Mercier ; then in 2013, a show in situ called Le Rivage in collaboration with Oriane Déchery and Jérôme Andrieu.

In 2016, I joined l’Association Lola Gatt Productions chorégraphiques based in Brest, as an associate choreographer together with Gaël Sesboüé and Marie-Laure Caradec. The very same year I choreographed and directed a play for three performers called Madame. In the beginning of 2020, I created a solo titled Mascarades which I performed and choreographed. Today I’m working on a piece titled Lessons of Darkness, which is planned to premiere in 2022.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Supported by an inaugural International Residency (IRIS) award from the Arts Council of Ireland, CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS is an in-person artist led residency initiative for six socially engaged dance artists that unites CoisCéim Broadreach, the OperaEstate/CSC (Comune di Bassano, Italy) and Le Gymnase CDCN in Roubaix, France. It seeks to support fresh approaches to developing artistic participatory practice and foreground the value of diversity – cultural, natural & social – in everyday life.

Building from a gathering in Bassano in July 2022, this project brings together the following dance artists – Vittoria Caneva (Italy), Marion Carriau (France), Justine Cooper (Ireland), Chiara Frigo (Italy), Aoife McAtamney (Ireland), Betty Tchomanga (France) – with the general public in Dublin, Bassano (Italy) and Roubaix (France) through twelve residencies – four in each country – and other events – allowing 36 physical points of contact over the next two years. It has the following core artistic aims – to:

– provide a NEW interconnected, transnational residency opportunity for six socially engaged dance artists, whose practice traverses traditional artform boundaries

–  connect artists & other professionals to inspire experimentation & foster creative growth

The partners’ view is long-term – our ambition to build interconnected pathways that can facilitate, prototype & interrogate new models/contexts that develop cross-sectoral process & bring artists and public participants together in ways that simultaneously stretch individual & collective creative practice and build active, life-long participation in dance.

ABOUT OUR PROJECT PARTNERS

Comune di Bassano del Grappa is an Italian public body, dedicated to the development of culture and contemporary performing arts in the Veneto Region. Part of the Comune di Bassano del Grappa are Centro per la Scena Contemporanea, a dance house, and Operaestate Festival Veneto, a multidisciplinary festival, their activities and objectives are aimed at supporting artistic development, audience engagement, cultural active participation of citizens in community projects, artistic productions, promotion of artistic mobility, promotion of initiatives of cultural inclusion, presentation of events and performances, qualification of the territory and its heritage with cultural initiatives. It is member of Aerowaves and European Dancehouse Network and recipient of several grants supported by the Creative Europe and Erasmus+ programmes of the EU.

Founded in 1983, Le Gymnase National Centre of Choreographic Development (CDCN) has been working for almost 40 years supporting the choreographic sector and establishing networks in the Lille area and both regionally and nationally. At the heart of Le Gymnase CDCN’s mission is helping and supporting choreographic artists and forging a relationship between choreographic creation and audiences. On the basis of this, there are three strands to its activities:
• supporting creation and research structured around welcoming artists at work (in research and
creative residences), helping with production and company structures
• dissemination centred on two festivals: Le Grand Bain, an immersion in the diversity of the
choreographic landscape, and Les Petits Pas, a pioneering dance festival aimed at young
audiences
• education (with regular lessons, courses and masterclasses) mediation and raising awareness,
organised around opportunities for encounters and reflection as well as numerous activities in
schools and associations.

Located in the priority area “Quartier Intercommunal Roubaix-Tourcoing – Blanc Seau – Croix Bas Saint Pierre”, the CDCN’s home since 2003 is an old gymnasium built in 1876. Le Gymnase is active in its local area, but also wants to be more closely involved with people living in the Hauts-de-France region. With a population of just under one hundred thousand, Roubaix, the third largest commune in Hauts-de-France by population, is famous for its architectural heritage as well as for its economic expansion, its rich web of associations and its pioneering social activities (e.g. inter-professional housing committee, residents’ involvement, and its social and solidarity-based economy). Facing numerous difficulties, more than three quarters of the population of the city of Roubaix live in a priority area in terms of municipal policies. Roubaix is one of France’s poorest communes, but also one of France’s youngest population.

Starting from this vivid reality but also from the potential the city offers, since it relocated to Roubaix Le Gymnase CDCN has adopted new approaches to respond to the area’s needs and make art and culture accessible to the people who live there. To achieve this, Le Gymnase has launched projects that allow encounters between dance and the public, specifically in health clinics and social organisations,associations and educational institutions from nurseries to universities. It supports and works alongside the disadvantaged in priority areas, people cut off from cultural offers, and in cooperation with local actors and support structures (in the areas of social care, health and education).