Born in Mallow Co. Cork, Joan Denise Moriarty (1912 – 1992) was a dancer, teacher, choreographer, founder of the Cork Ballet Company, of two professional companies, and of Cork’s Firkin Crane Dance Centre.

Directed by Alan Foley this Gala features a new adaptation of Miss Moriarty’s most famous ballet The Playboy of the Western World choreographed by former Irish National Ballet ballerina Patricia Crosbie.  Excerpts from her ballets including Lugh of the Golden Arm are also on the programme, as well as a show-stopping Pas de deux from the seafaring Le Corsaire and the Polovtsian Dances from Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor.

In November 2012, Cork City Ballet will tour Ireland with a new production of The Sleeping Beauty, and, as a precursor to this salubrious occasion, a suite from that ballet will be presented at the gala featuring the prima ballerina of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Marie Lindqvist and international ballet star Dragos Mihalcea.

In addition, Anton Dolin’s Pas de Quatre will be reproduced for the Gala by Joanna Banks who trained at the Royal Ballet School in London, and learned the ballet from Dolin himself when he came to Cork in 1978 to stage it for INB. With a beautiful score by Pugni and stunning costumes made at the Kirov theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, this exquisite quartet promises to be one of the highlights of the show.

Speaking at the recent launch of this event, Artistic Director of Cork City Ballet Alan Foley said, I am delighted that we at Cork City Ballet are in a position to celebrate the work of the most iconic figure in ballet in Ireland – Dr. Joan Denise Moriarty. As one of only two professional ballet companies in Ireland we are very proud to continue the legacy of this remarkable woman from Cork.

“Cork City Ballet… frothing with charm and professionalism” Mary Leland, The Irish Times

www.corkcityballet.com

Time: 4.30pm to 6.30pm

Location: St Nicholas Parochial School Hall, Waterside, Galway (next to Town Hall Theatre)
from age 13+
Fee: €6/€8
Limited places and booking recommended at eolas@ciotog.ie

Participants will work with us exploring the themes of Frugal Feasts – power, care, violence, dependence – digging into our unique way of working. Physical exploration, reflection, and discussion will allow us to explore how and why we make, discover new ways of playing and creating, and uncover the distinctive physicality which characterises Frugal Feasts, and all Rachel Birch-Lawsons work (radical physical style – Die Welt) Participants will be led through the same creative processes and tasks we undertook, creating personal responses to the workshop and Frugal Feasts themes. (Attendance at the Frugal Feast performance, 7.30m 27 Jan in the Cube, NUIG is not essential for participating in this workshop, but we’d love to see you there)

Working with tasks that are:
Intense,
Playful,
Ambiguous,
Open but directed,
Specific,
Multi-layered,
Simple and clear,
Physical,
Rooted in body

Pushing our explorations to their physical, mental, and emotional limit to find what develops from boredom, frustration, tension … or fun.

Workshop includes:
Full warm-up: physical, mental, and sensorial.
Creative exploration: improvisations, tasks, games.
Opportunity to learn sections of the work, recreating these for your unique body – learning impulses and motivations rather than steps and counts.
Time for discussion and reflection.

Trained at London Contemporary Dance School and The Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, we have worked with a wide range of companies and artists. We have a strong commitment to, and enjoyment, of a fluid dance scene that transcends geographical and cultural borders. To date we have worked in England, Germany,Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, USA, Wales,

South Korea, Spain, Ireland, South Africa and United Arab Emirates.

Further information at http://www.beyondthesteps.co.uk

Co-presented by Ciotóg- Galway Dancer in Residence, and Galway Dance Project

The Ciotóg Galway Dancer in Residence programme is supported by the Arts Council, Galway County Council, Galway City Council, Town Hall Theatre, Eala’in na Gaeltachta, & National Univesrity of Ireland Galway

Galway Dance Project is supported by the Arts Council

Presented by Ciotóg- Galway Dancer in Residence, and the Centre for Irish Studies, NUIG

27 January @ 7.30pm

Frugal Feasts

Two bodies: squashing, pressing, molding the other to make room for their own. Individuals slowly being erased assimilated into one entity. Where does I end and We begin?

This duet is about power, resistance and accommodation: the fine line between aggression and tenderness. Visceral and tactile movement evokes trust and care, violence and aggression, sensuality and sexuality.

Exploring:

How care can be disguised or subverted by strength and violence.
How aggression can be passive: rejection, refusal to play the game.
Interdependence bound into claustrophobic intensity.
Beyond the Steps are Rachel Birch-Lawson and Khyle Eccles

Virtuoso – Die Welt

As exciting as a thriller … technically perfect – hamburgtheater.de

This nightmarish brutal, tender, or brutal-tender duel takes your breath away – Hamburger Abendblatt

Meet Joan Dark
A work in constant progress. An alter ego scenario. Joan Dark is a woman of great courage although very afraid, who ponders upon the bigger questions in life while dancing to her favorite Patsy Cline tune.

by Maria Svensson
Music by: Joan Dark, Patsy Cline, Johny Cash & June Carter.

Approximate duration 1 hour
Donations at the door welcome
Limited places and booking recommended at eolas@ciotog.ie

The Ciotóg Galway Dancer in Residence programme is supported by the Arts Council, Galway County Council, Galway City Council, Town Hall Theatre, Eala’in na Gaeltachta, & National Univesrity of Ireland Galway