PERFORMING MEMORY
A Perform Europe Project
An exploration of memory, movement, and stillness
“In this project, you will be driven by your imagination. Imagination will help your body find and determine the direction of movement." - Sasha Kurmaz
Witness remembrance in motion under open skies. A powerful outdoor dance experience that blends memory, movement, and place.
PERFORMING MEMORY was a cross-cultural collaboration rooted in UNTITLED, Sasha Kurmaz’s response to the story of sisters in Ukraine who danced on soldiers’ graves, which sparked debate about appropriate ways to grieve. Adapted for Dublin by choreographer Simone O’Toole, a cast of non-professional dancers transformed real stories into raw, collective movement. Poetic, emotional, and rooted in shared human experience.
Culmination performances took place from 19-21 September 2025 as part of DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL and CULTURE NIGHT.
Gallery
Performed at
part of Dublin Fringe Festival
Wood Quay Amphitheatre
Dublin, Ireland
20 - 21 September 2025
part of Dublin Fringe Festival & Culture Night
Old Bandstand, Fairview Park
Dublin, Ireland
19 September 2025
ABOUT THE PROJECT
PERFORMING MEMORY | DANCE & PERFORMANCE PARTICIPATION PROJECT | 07JUNE TO 21 SEPTEMBER 2025
PERFORMING MEMORY was a creative dance project that brought together CoisCéim Broadreach with Proto Produkciia Agency (Ukraine) and Arte Sella in Italy. Funded through Perform Europe, it was rooted in the artistic vision of Ukrainian visual artist Sasha Kurmaz and through a collaboration with Irish choreographer Simone O’Toole explored and localised his work UNTITLED in Dublin.
“This is more than dancing. It’s a space to connect to ourselves, to each other, and to the deeper narratives we carry. Each week, we’ll move, reflect, and challenge our creative and technical edges in a supportive environment. We’ll also draw from the Irish tradition of keening - a physical and vocal expression of grief - as a way to explore the body’s response to loss, memory, and collective resilience. And to find out how we, as Irish people, find solace in communal grief, and embody empathy and transformation through dance.” - Simone O’Toole
Following taster sessions in June 2025, participants were invited to join Simone for 7 weeks of exploration of memory, movement, and stillness – to question how the body holds our stories and emotions, and how transformation can begin from within. Using imagery, like a candle melting from the crown down, explore how softness and release can shift the way we move and feel.
“The most beautiful part of this journey has been watching strangers, drawn together by movement and expression, become a community of trust, support, and shared vulnerability. This piece asks us to confront weighty themes: war, death, and the universal question - How do we grieve?” -Simone O’Toole
TASTER SESSIONS
People aged 18+ with dance and movement experience were invited to take part in FREE taster sessions on 07 June to delve deeper and discover more about choreographer Simone O’Toole’s movement practice.
WHEN 07 June 2025 - 12pm & 4pm
WHERE CoisCéim Studio
FREE
PRACTICE SESSIONS
WHEN 5 August -21 September on Tuesday + Thursday Evenings + occasional Saturdays in September
WHERE CoisCéim Studio
PROJECT FEES PAY WHAT YOU CAN | Recommended Price €175
CULMINATED in 6 daytime performances from Friday 19 - Sunday 21 September. See DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL website for more details.
Credits
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
PARTNERS
Perform Europe
Perform Europe, supported by the European Union, is a funding scheme for the European performing arts sector. It facilitates international networking and supports inclusive, diverse, and eco-friendly touring projects across the 40 Creative Europe countries. Perform Europe emphasises practices rooted in sustainability and inclusivity, aiming to transform the performing arts sector and ensure a balanced distribution across the continent.
Perform Europe is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and implemented by a consortium of six organisations: IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts, European Festivals Association (EFA), Circostrada, European Dance Development Network, Pearle * - Live Performance Europe and IDEA Consult.
Proto Produkciia Agency
Proto produkciia agency specializes in the implementation of bold artistic and educational ideas. We work with talented educators and independent artists. In 2022 established Antonin Artaud Fellowship - a long-term initiative aiming to invigorate the performing arts sector in Ukraine. For to nurture emerging artists and cultural managers, specializing in the realm of performing arts, by encouraging experimental and chamber works that have potential to evolve into impactful larger-scale projects.
Arte Sella – the Contemporary Mountain
For more than thirty years Arte Sella has been synonymous with art in nature, a unique creative workshop in Italy and in the world, where art has woven a continuous dialogue with the surprising nature of the Val di Sella, a side valley of the Valsugana, in Trentino. Hundreds of international artists have alternated over time, invited to interpret the spirit of the place and to return to look at
the works of art in continuous transformation. The works created by these artists are characterized by the ability to preserve their own recognizable but not alien physiognomy, for a different arrangement with respect to time, which is no longer the rectilinear and conventional history of art, but, perishable, according to the natural mutations of the seasons Vittorio Fagone in 2009.
Since its foundation in 1986, Arte Sella has evolved by interpreting its role as a creative forge listening to nature and placing itself as a powerful tool initially available to a small Alpine community, later to a much wider world, to imagine possible future scenarios and possible dynamics of the man-nature relationship. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl tragedy the need to find a way to restore a new balance with nature was immediately born: at Arte Sella this need has declined, over the course of thirty-five years, through the gaze and vision of more than three hundred artists who, having abandoned the role of absolute protagonists of the creative act, have joined nature, their ally in the creation and transformation of the work. The mutation of Arte Sella's works is continuous, constant and subject to weather conditions and the passing of the seasons.
Arte Sella has thus become an open-air museum that includes a considerable portion of the Val di Sella. There are two routes that can be visited throughout the year, with different times that change depending on the natural variation of the daylight hours. The first route begins at Villa Strobele, one of the many historic houses in the valley, birthplace of Arte Sella and the first exhibitions. With the project of the Arte Sella Architettura which started in 2017, Villa Strobele has become a fundamental place for reflection on the question of living and landscape and therefore, ultimately, to what relationship man and humanity, may have in the future with the places where they settle, and which are crossed by a continuous process of change. Architects such as Kengo Kuma, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Michele de Lucchi.
From Villa Strobele, the Montura path, enriched by a series of benches designed by artists and designers such as Alberto Meda, Aldo Cibic, Matteo Poli and Giulio Iacchetti, encourages visitors to admire the peculiarities of the landscape of the valley. At the end of the route the Malga Costa Area welcomes the visitors. The building of the Malga once dedicated to the mountain pasture, is now an exhibition hall and a meeting place. Around it unfolds an exhibition area that contemplates some of the most monumental works known to the public, such as the Tree Cathedral by Giuliano Mauri, Third Paradise – The Trench of Peace by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Symbiosis by Edoardo Tresoldi, Common Root by Henrique Oliveira, Mountain Trebucco by Arne Quinze , Liquid Landscape by Daan Roosegaarde, Physis by Arcangelo Sassolino, fonda.menti by ivan, Proserpina #A_S4 by Quayola and Sabìr by Velasco Vitali.
Over time at Arte Sella, art in nature, music, dance, photography, poetry and literature have found a place for research and common reflection. Their vision, together with that of the artists who will cross Arte Sella with an increasingly interdisciplinary look, will continue to investigate the complexity of the contemporaneity in which we are immersed.
Dublin Fringe Festival
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL IS A CURATED, MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTS FESTIVAL AND YEAR-ROUND ARTIST SUPPORT ORGANISATION. WE SEEK OUT AND PRESENT CONTEMPORARY, PLAYFUL AND PROVOCATIVE NEW WORK MADE BY IRISH AND INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS OF VISION IN AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION ALL OVER THE CITY.
Established in 1995, Dublin Fringe Festival is the agenda-setting festival for new work in Ireland, devoted to talent development and artform development. It is a platform for new and emerging artists in Ireland to showcase their work and offers artists at every stage of their career an opportunity to challenge, subvert and invigorate their disciplines and practice.
Culture Night
co-produced with
proto produkciia agency (Ukraine) and arte sella (italy)
Led by Proto Produkciia Agency, PERFORMING MEMORY co-created and presented local performances of Ukrainian artists ‘Lost Movement’ by Nana Biakova and ‘UNTITLED’ by Sasha Kurmaz in Ukraine, Italy, and Ireland. Ukrainian artists collaborated remotely with local performers, fostering intercultural dialogue on remembering, commemoration, and movement. The project was initiated by a consortium of partners led by Proto Produkciia from Ukraine, and including Arte Sella from Italy and CoisCéim from Ireland.
Two Ukrainian works were presented in their local context . Following this, the works were virtually explored and reinterpreted in Italy and Ireland. Ukrainian artists engaged in online discussions with local artists from two countries. These discussions focused on the core concepts, allowing for reinterpretation of and adaptation to the specific cultural contexts of Italy and Ireland.
The final performances showcased the artistic exchange and happened without the physical presence of Ukrainian artists. This innovative approach eliminates travel, significantly reducing the project’s carbon footprint while increasing accessibility to impactful performances across Europe. The project redefined international collaboration by prioritising local artist integration and developing a replicable model for future artistic exchange.
project funding
PERFORMING MEMORY was one of 42 performing arts partnerships to receive funding from the Perform Europe Open Call
Perform Europe received 435 proposals from all eligible countries, in response to the Open Call. Projects were selected by 17 expert evaluators for their innovative touring ideas, while balance was ensured in terms of geography, performing arts disciplines, and the call’s priorities. Each partnership project will receive up to EUR 60 000 in funding to bring their touring projects to life. Notably, 13 % of the total fund will be allocated to projects supporting the Ukrainian performing arts sector.
From July 2024 to November 2025, these 42 partnerships involving no less than 196 partners, toured 63 performing arts works across all 40 Creative Europe countries. It is remarkable to note that performing arts professionals and organisations, from ALL of the Creative Europe countries are represented in the selection. They tested innovative ideas and models for touring, all with one common goal: to redefine how the performing arts can reach audiences in a greener, more inclusive, and more diverse way.
