Six in the Attic Off-Site
Irish Theatre Institute + CoisCéim Dance Theatre
Since 2015, Irish Theatre Institute has worked with CoisCéim in providing residency space for Six in the Attic artists requiring dedicated desk and/or studio space.
Designed to support and facilitate creative development opportunities for independent artists in Ireland, Six in the Attic Off-Site facilitates residencies throughout the year. These short-term residencies are a resource sharing initiative to allow theatre makers, in particular those working through movement, a dedicated space and resources for physical expression and experimentation.
THE OFF-SITE COLLABORATION offers fixed term residencies for performance artists including writers, theatre and dance makers at CoisCéim’s studios in Dublin 3.
The 2023 programme is open to all theatre-makers to apply – For further information about the application process please contact Irish Theatre Institute.
upcoming participants
Renn Miano, BLACKMAGICRAWr 4 – 8 November 2024
BLACKMAGICRAWr is an afro futurist exploration of weaving ancestral storytelling accompanied by present time responsive work/s through movement, backdropped by sonics and voice/breathwork. This ongoing focus on grounding the body and reenergizing stillness has accumulated in performances at: IMMA, Nuns Island, Live Collision, CCI Paris and The Complex. For this residency, Cami, Osaro, Renn, along with their A/V collaborator Sal, hope to delve further into their project and create a repertoire of body poems.
Nick Nikolaou 2 – 6 December 2024
Nick is an Irish-based contemporary dance and queer artist. They graduated with First Class Honours from the MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at the University of Limerick, and they have performed with various companies in Ireland, Greece and many countries around Europe. Their research, since 2020, is around club and queer spaces and their importance on a person’s existence and comfort. For this research, they had the support of mentors such as Liz Roche, Philip Connaughton, Emma Martin and Tonie Walsh. Their latest endeavour is being a producer and resident performer for Dublin Modular, an artist-run organisation primarily hosting all types of live electronic music and visual arts meetups, workshops, talks and performances throughout Dublin City, with various events lined up. In Dublin Modular, they have integrated the element of dance performance and theatrical performance in all their events since they joined.
Safire Hikari 9 – 13 December 2024
Safire Hikari is a dancer, circus performer and teacher of various movement forms and theatre. They studied circus, dance and performance in Greentop and acrobatics in Polinchinelo acrobatic shcool in Sheffield and Liverpool. They studied contemporary dance and theatre for 3 years at Companhia Olga Roriz as well as developing in contact improvisation and vertical dance in Lisbon. Safire teaches in diverse groups around Europe. Including aerial and dance in the IACC in Limerick, Greise theatre in Kildare, aerial dance in The Circus Project in Brighton and inclusive dance in Ajuda in Lisbon. They have performed with diverse groups Including: Urban Angels, Fidget Feet, High Top Circus, B-Collective, Aeritiko, Jazzy Dance Studios, Chapitô, Trincheira Teatro, Marionet, Magma Banda and Cirque Normandie. Safire is currently creating their own work a dance duet, a dance acrobatics duet, a contemporary dance aerial rope duet and a dance quartet. Safire has been practicing, teaching and performing for over 10 years and adores experiencing, expressing & sharing the magic of the arts and the healing it brings. For this residency, Safire will develop a new piece called ‘Shift’, a duet that is a combination of physical theatre, acrobatics and contemporary dance.
Past Participants
Adanya Gilmore 17 – 21 June 2024
Adanya Gilmore is a multidisciplinary artist and performer. Her place of origin is the unceded territory of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank peoples (Washington, D.C.). Their work is largely improvisatory and explores divergent, goofy, and queer narrative dance from a Black femme-nist perspective. More recently their movement experiments with intersections between generating character and cultural commentary. They are a recent MFA graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has worked with artists such as Jennifer Monson, Tere O’Connor, Dr. Cynthia Oliver, Gina T’ai, Christine Johnson, Ching-i Chang and jess pretty. Her writing has been published by the Humanities Research Institute at UIUC and the Chicago publication Sixty Inches From Center. For this residency, Adanya delved into a creative process that explores how improvisation, critical thinking skills and dance theatre interact with one another.
Annie Brown, Virgo Moon Burlesque 10 – 14 June 2024
Annie Brown is a writer and performer based in Limerick City. Annie’s mother promised her that if she got good grades in school, she could run away with the circus if it made her happy. Annie didn’t take her mother up on this offer, but rather, became a one-woman circus of her own. Annie graduated with a BA in Contemporary and Applied Theatre Studies in 2021 and has since established herself as a neo-burlesque artist, performing across Ireland and developing a unique and authentic style with a wide-ranging thematic focus. She has used the Off-Site @ Coiscéim Residency to develop a new solo work called CABARET MANIFESTO.
Emma Finegan 4 – 10 December 2023
For the residency, Emma explored the physical language of a new work she was researching. This solo autobiographical work was inspired by the Curragh in Kildare. Emma is a Dublin-based performer and theatre maker from Kildare. Her artistic process draws on the disciplines of clown and dance to create unique theatrical experiences. Emma’s work has been supported by the Arts Council, Dublin Fringe Festival, Shawbrook Residential, Fishamble and Corcadorca, among others. She was a resident artist on Performance Corporation’s CREATION 21/22, a recipient of Riverbank Arts Centre’s Momentum Award 2020 & Dunamaise Arts Centre’s Open Stage Residency 2022. In 2022, Emma performed in Pig Brain at Dublin Fringe Festival & developed new work at Centre Culturel Irlandais. In 2023, Emma studied Clown at École Philippe Gaulier.
Honey and Lemon 27 November – 3 December 2023
As a part of the residency, Honey and Lemon (Millie Daniel-Dempsey & Amy Robyn Lyster), presented their first live performance reinterpreting the physical expression of iconic entertainers both on and off stage. Honey & Lemon are multidisciplinary entertainers experimenting with the boundaries of contemporary dance-making. They are an Irish, woman-led creative partnership, formed in 2020 by co-directors Millie Daniel-Dempsey and Amy Robyn Lyster. They bring together their wide-ranging experiences as solo artists with a desire to make genre-bending work that centres women’s creativity and expands their practice as performers. They are recipients of the Axis Assemble Bursary 2023 and previously the DI Mentored Residency Award which began their relationship with mentor Lea Anderson MBE. Honey & Lemon are currently Artists in Residence at The Civic Theatre.
Shane Lambert 20 – 26 November 2023
During the residency Shane worked on a dance piece with the underlying narrative of abuse within relationships and by the people close to us. Shane Lambert, also known as Shao (they/them) is an Irish freelance photographer, dancer, and filmmaker. Shane shoots various different concerts, alongside a current project called WRU covering themes in regards to the human condition. With their hand in various arts, they have a passion for the urban creative scene within Dublin and beyond.
Zoe Ní Riordáin 21 – 27 August 2023
For this residency Zoe developed a new multi-disciplinary piece, The Building Project with two dancers ahead of a sharing in Dublin Theatre Festival 2023. Zoe is a theatre and filmmaker from Dublin. She is committed to making challenging and heartfelt work with a spirit of adventure. Her practice as a writer, director, songwriter and performer is based on collaboration and drawing from a wide range of disciplines. Her work is focused on a need to express the inexpressible. She is co-artistic director of One Two One Two with Maud Lee. Their work in theatre, film and music has toured nationally and internationally since 2014. Recent projects include short film Tar Anseo [come here] (Best Director at Fastnet Film Festival ’23), short film Dúirt Tú [you said] (Best Director at Cork International Film Festival ’20), Everything I Do, theatre/music piece (Best Performer at Dublin Fringe Awards 2019) – “Thrilling gig theatre” – The Guardian. Zoe is a 2023 Clore Fellow.
Caitríona Daly 1 – 5 August 2023
Caitríona Daly is a playwright screenwriter and dramaturg from Dublin. Her plays have been produced all over the world. They include: Duck Duck Goose (WINNER Writers Guild of Ireland Zebbie Award for best theatre script 2022), Normal (nominated Fishamble New Writing Award and First Fortnight Award, Dublin Fringe 2017) and Test Dummy (nominated Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play 2016). She also won the Irish Theatre Institute’s Pheilim Donlon Playwrights Bursary and Residency in 2022. She was also under commission with The Abbey Theatre and Run Of The Mill Arts Kildare.
CN Smith 26 September – 8 October 2022
For the Residency, Colin worked on re-imagining and redrafting of his play, Before You Head Off. It is a consideration of the bodies and voices of people of colour and how they often come into direct conflict with the Irish dramatic canon and its themes. CN Smith is a playwright from Louth. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Lir Academy, and was a recipient of the Patricia Leggett Playwriting Scholarship in 2020. His play SPEAR is a Dublin Fringe Festival Commission for 2022, and he is also a part of Fishamble and The Irish Rep’s inaugural Trans-Atlantic Commissions.
Carys D. Coburn and MALAPROP 21 – 27 November 2022
For the Residency, Carys and MALAPROP explored the concept for their next show – Ai Ya Ouch. They worked with a core cast of three actors and three dancers to explore pain- the most intimate of bodily experiences, the management of which is a pressing political issue. Carys D. Coburn writes collaboratively with MALAPROP; their work has won acclaim for its distinctive blend of nerdiness and tenderness. Carys was the recipient of the 2017 Verity Bargate Award for their sole-authored play Citysong. Work with young people is a major strand of their practice; they are the author of ‘Ask Too Much of Me’, written for the 2018/19 NYT ensemble, and are currently under commission to write HandToMouthToMouthToHand for the National Theatre’s 2022 Connections programme.
Zoe Ní Ríordáin 15 – 19 July 2019
Zoe Ní Ríordáin is a theatre director and musician from Dublin. Along with collaborator Maud Lee, she makes original work for theatre based on deeply felt writing, expressed in layered theatrical language. For the Off-Site @ CoisCéim residency Zoe and Maud worked on the development of the movement language of Everything I Do, in advance of its tour in August 2019.
Noelle Brown 22 – 26 July 2019
An actor since 1987, Noelle has worked extensively in theatre, film, television and radio. For the Off-Site @ CoisCéim residency Noelle worked on her piece The Ship. Using movement and original music, the piece explores women’s lived experiences of menopause from the perspective of surgical and cancer treatment induced menopause and age-related menopause. Supported by funding from Dublin City Council Arts Office.
Carys D. Coburn 4 – 8 November 2019
Carys D. Coburn is a playwright based in Dublin. For the Off-Site @ CoisCéim residency Carys worked with MALAPROP Theatre on Hothouse, their commission for THISISPOPBABY’s 2020 Where We Live Festival. They used the week to explore ideas around home, legacy, and the irredeemable but weirdly beautiful tackiness of cruise ships, with an all-singing all-dancing ensemble of performers.
Shane O’Reilly and Paul Curley 13 – 15 June 2018
As part of the Off-Site @ CoisCéim residency, Shane together with Paul and Denis Clohessy continued to develop the new musical Gold in the Water. Over a three-day residency, the CoisCéim studio hosted a team of musicians, singers and makers. This development was made possible by funding from an Arts Council Project Award with support from Irish Theatre Institute, The Ark and CoisCéim.
Zoe Ní Ríordáin 23 July – 4 August 2018
During the Off Site @ CoisCéim residency Zoe worked on her new piece Everything I Do, in advance of its premiere in autumn 2018.
Caitríona Ní Mhurchú 3 – 16 September 2018
Caitríona was awarded an Arts Council development grant to create a new interdisciplinary work. The piece is part elegy to the lighthouse, part ode to her grandfather, part inquiry into changing technology.
Martin Sharry 12 – 25 November 2018
For this Off-Site @ CoisCéim residency Martin explored how the movements triggered by Parkinsons might evolve as a potential dance piece.
Paul Curley June – August 2017
Sarah Jane Scaife August 2017
Noelle Brown July – August 2017
Gina Moxley December 2016
Paul Curley June 2015, May – June + Nov – Dec 2016
Mark Cantan July 2015
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