Physical Debates
Part of Sparking Debate
The SPARKING DEBATE physical debates marked the final event of our major multifaceted ART:2023 project for the culmination programme for the Decade of Centenaries in collaboration with the 2024 St Patrick’s Festival.
With these physical debates, the goal was to take this concept one step further – by staging a discussion where diverse perspectives were debated with and through the body in one or more dance styles – in an artistic experiment to spark new thinking around conciliation, peace-making and what it means to be Irish today. A debate is defined as a “a competition in which teams of people, discuss a subject [a motion] and the team that is judged to make the best argument wins”.
The structure of the debate was competitive. 8 crews debated 7 topics through an instant composition. Topics were chosen by extraction on the day to allow a spontaneous physical discussion driven by the dancers involved. All dance styles were permitted and crews were judged on skill, dynamism & creative response to debate topics.
Gallery
Physical Debates
WHEN | 18 March 2024 | 2:30pm – 4:30pm (doors 2:00pm)
WHERE | Black Box, TU Dublin, Grangegorman Campus
TICKETS | FREE admission
TOPICS FOR DEBATE
Each topic/motion was linked to the 5 poems from each province of Ireland that underpinned SPARKING DEBATE and were designed to be catalysts for conversation not to discriminate. They were
- FIRST PEACE, THEN JUSTICE (Leinster)
- A UNITED IRELAND FOR ALL OF US OR NONE OF US (Connacht)
- BORDERS SHOULD BE DEFINED BY NATURE (Ulster)
- IF YOU WOULD KNOW ME, COME LIVE WITH ME (Munster)
- NORTHERN IRELAND CAN TEACH THE WORLD: PEACE IS POSSIBLE (5th)
- CLIMATE CARE STARTS AT HOME (5th)
The topic of the final debate, TO BUILD AN IRISH IDENTITY WE ALL HAVE TO WANT ONE was chosen by the crews involved – possible subjects also included: The goal of peaceful living is a state of happy unrest; Truth is born from dispute; For peacemaking it’s about finding pathways that can evolve not solutions.
Credits
CREWS
CREW 1 Levi Cos, Leon Halligan, Brandon Lynch, Jamie Smith
CREW 2 Leon Dwyer, Gavin Kelly, Nathan Kelly, Nathan Evans
CREW 3 LA Feeney, Luke Brady, Chris Crook, Alex O’Neill
CREW 4 Lapree Lala, Daniella Ansong, Adeshope Adeneye, Kessiena Unuakpor
CREW 5 Tobi Omoteso, Casey Ronan, Karl Smith, Paul Eazy
CREW 6 Sara Pavic, Roberta Ceginskaite, Tara Marie Angeline Bredemier, Jacob Keogh
CREW 7 Alex Vostokova, Grace Cuny, Jack Fleming, Christian Emmanuel Dirocie
CREW 8 Markas Kozlov, Salah (Popping Mesh), Diarmuid Armstrong Mayock, Helena Palmer
JUDGES Robyn Byrne, Cian Mulcahy (bboy Cian), Suleman Shode (Sly Boogie), Mateusz Szczerek, Jessie Thompson
DJ Damo
MC Dylan Chapman
LIGHTING DESIGN/ CHIEF LX John Gunning
PROJECTIONS Alphabet Soup
AV TECHNICIAN Archer Bradshaw
TECHNICIAN Alexandra Rosenberger
HOUSE TECH/SOUND Aidah
PHOTOGRAPHER SINÉAD JERROMES
VIDEOGRAPHER ELTON MULLALY
ARTISTIC ADVISORS Matt Szczerek & Jessie Thompson
USHERS SABRINA BOCCIA, ANNE DUCHADEUIL, JOE HAYDEN, PATRYCJA KWIECIEN, SHAUNA LINDSAY, ANNA MATUSHKINA
PROJECT COORDINATOR Inna Mazurenko
SPECIAL THANKS TO Tobi Omoteso & Jessie O’Reilly
THANK YOU WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE KIND SUPPORT OF ROBERT KIERNAN AND EAMON FOX AT TU DUBLIN
Partners
St. Patrick's Festival
St. Patrick’s Festival is Ireland’s official celebration of its national holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. Its origins lie in honouring Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick. Initially, it was a solemn commemorative feast day dedicated to paying tribute to the saint, but over the years, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a vibrant celebration encompassing the richness of Irish culture. Established in 1996, the festival has grown from a single-day to a four-day event featuring music, performance, spectacle, dance, theatre, literature, visual arts, food, wellness, community events and much more. It is recognised globally as one of the world’s biggest festivals, with a total reach of over 700 million people in 2023. It is a joyful occasion marked by parades, performances, and diverse expressions of Irish heritage; a multicultural international event that is committed to displaying contemporary and traditional arts, culture and heritage of the Irish people and the people who call Ireland home.
TU Dublin
The TU Dublin Campus at Grangegorman is the largest investment in Higher Education in Ireland, and brings together many of its activities in one vibrant, cutting-edge campus, providing our students with an incomparable educational experience. The development includes a brand new purpose-built East Quad creative arts centre. At nearly 17,000 square meters, this custom-built building features new art and design studios, concert and recital halls, theatre and TV studios in a first for Irish university education. The emergence of the creative and cultural sector as a critical agent of social and economic transformation in Ireland and Europe has long been documented. Our vision is to lead education, practice and research for Ireland’s creative and cultural industry and act as a national and international benchmark for the creative arts.
