MoveMeant Residency 2024

Date:

Mon 30 Sep 2024 - Fri 4 Oct 2024

Time:

10:00 - 18:00

Venue:

DanceHouse

The MoveMeant Residency and workshops were developed by artist Oluwatobiloba “Tobi” Balogun in collaboration with cultural producer Karen Aguiar and are supported by a partnership with Dance Ireland. They aim to provide space and connection for dancers and dance artists of different backgrounds to evolve and develop new approaches for their creative practice and future work; reflecting on how we present what moves us as individuals, as a community; and exploring how topics are expressed in our work and how this space can be co-created or made more sustainable.

Workshop Schedule

Movement and the Soma with Yamina Lyara
Monday Sep 30, 10:30-13:00
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Movement and Experimentation with Darhan Norden
Tuesday Oct 1, 10:30-13:00
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Movement and Expression with Tobi Balogun
Wednesday Oct 2, 10:30-13:00
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New Movements Studio Sharing

Friday Oct 4, 17:00-18:00

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About the Artists

ABOUT Tobi Balogun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oluwatobiloba “Tobi” Balogun is a Multidisciplinary Artist, working across Dance, Theatre, Visual Arts and Design. In 2024 he was awarded a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais where he further developed his work around Black masculinity through installation, voice and performance. Most recently Tobi exhibited his work as part of Behind the Curtain - Artworks 2024, the annual open call exhibition hosted by VISUAL as part of Carlow Arts Festival. His practice is centred on Hip Hop as critical pedagogy and Afro surrealism. Fusing traditional cultural elements with contemporary street culture to create vivid, expressive storytelling.

In 2020 he received a Create Bursary to develop phase one of BLACK CANVAS - an R&D project in relation to Black-Irish creatives and communities. In 2021 he also received an Art’s Council - Bursary Award to develop work emerging from this, which included a curatorial residency in Dance Ireland (MoveMEANT 2022), LIBERTY VIBES - and event supported by DCC Local Live Performance, and NATIVES as part of Culture Night (2022). Most recently he curated and directed ESCAIR (2024), drawing together some of Ireland’s leading creatives in celebration of Afro Irish culture at Dance Ireland. Tobi is part of a strategic thinking partnership between Dublin Dance Festival, 5 lamps Festival, Carlow Arts Festival and Top 8.

In 2024 he was also invited to contribute to the Create Learning Lab which collects expertise and narratives around collaborative leadership and social change. As a performer he was invited by Dublin Dance Festival to form a collaboration between leading Irish Street Dance artists and French dancers Collective Faire as part of Dance Scapes 2024.

In 2022 and 2023 he was invited to perform at John Scott’s Dancer from the Dance and also choreographed and performed JUXTA for Project Arts Centre’s Open Day. As a choreographer and movement director he worked with Theatre Maker Louise White, Felispeaks and with music artists Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran among others. He has also performed with Theatre Company Brokentalkers as part of the cast in ‘Manifest’ (Project Arts Centre) and worked for contemporary choreographers such as David Bolger - as part of an ensemble in LAOCHRA (2016), for Ailish Claffey in RAW (2017), along side Joanna Banks, Jessie Keenan and Glenna Batson and for Cathy Coughlan in OIL&WATER (2016) & TRANS-BORDER (2016). As a professional member of Dance Ireland and founding member of Human Collective Dance Company Tobi has co- created many works for stage including FABLE for Dublin Fringe Festival (2018), performed at Project Arts Centre and nominated for a Best Ensemble Award.

As a facilitator he has developed youth projects in association with choreographers Cathy Coughlan, Maria Nilsson Waller and with organisations such as South Dublin County Council, Tallaght Community Arts, Dublin City Council and Dance Ireland. From 2018-’19 he delivered weekly classes at CoisCeim Dance Theatre as part of their Broadreach Programme. Over the last 5 years Tobi has established himself as a new voice in Irish clothing, creating bespoke pieces for specific events and commercial video work, as well as made to order designs for his own clothing line and ongoing project - WAHALA.

ABOUT Darhan Norden

Samuel Darhan Norden aka "AYWA" was born in Martinique and is a self-taught multidisciplinary/eclectic artist and explorer whose movement is at the root of all the different forms of expression he has touched in his life. He has been dancing and exploring the possibilities of his body for over 15 years. Starting with traditional Afro-Caribbean, urban and contemporary dances, he eventually developed individually into experimental dance and movement abstraction. He loves to twist, play with music, turn, slide, fall, jump and become strange and abstract forms using the suppleness and grace of his body. He has worked and danced with unique artists such as Heddy MaaLem, kristian Mensa "Mr.Kriss", Melina Boubetra "boubzy" ,Yann Massurich , Maky Gorocha ( Cie Kane) .

He has performed at events such as the World of Dance (Spain), taken part in and won Battles such as the Festival (Dis)connected Reicko (Paris), Au delà des préjugé (Switzerland), crossover dance Battle (Germany), taken part in mini documentaries and film shoots that have won awards at the Nikon film festival, exhibited his paintings and for the last 2 years has taught and performed in Switzerland and Paris with his company Le NouN.

As a visual artist, he draws inspiration from the banal things left behind the sensitivity of the people he photographs or the shape of the characters he paints. He works a lot on the research of the connection, the dance contact and instinctive feelings and different emotions and especially the art of improvisation. For over 1 year he has been exploring his African roots by integrating primitive ritual dance movements into his artistic approach.

“Dance for me is a medium of research and personal development, of physical and mental healing, an inexhaustible source of creation and above all of experimentation. A way to be present, contemplative and creative at the same time”

 

ABOUT Yamina Lyara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yamina Lyara is an artist, dance and movement practitioner, facilitator and birth doula. Born in Switzerland, currently between Portugal and the UK, her love for dance took her across the world from a young age. Her work today expands into a creative tapestry of interconnected elements, merging the lines and finding synergy, through the craft of story-telling and world-building. In her late teens Yamina moved to New York City with a quest to expand her training and explore the diversity of street dance culture, which laid the foundation of her movement practice as it is today. Throughout her journey, Yamina's approach has been self-directed, marked by experimentation and inner inquiry.

Impacted by various teachers and mentors, she has honed her skills, integrating diverse movement techniques and philosophies into her practice. Dance styles such as Hip Hop, House, Popping and Contemporary, as well as Martial Arts and Traditional and Ancestral Practices from living in South America, have contributed to the shaping of her unique movement language. Her dedication to understanding the nature of movement is evident in her commitment to improvisation- and nature immersed practices, which form the core of her exploration. Over these last few years, her embodied practice gradually and naturally took her into the subtle and energetic layers, recognising movement as a tool for self-discovery, transformation, and spiritual practice. This pursuit of experiences has not only refined her language as a mover but has also showcased her versatility and depth of artistic expression across various roles in the creative field, including performer, choreographer, movement director, and facilitator.

Her ongoing project “To The Motherland” is a body of work diving into the complex and multidimensional worlds of the female psyche, embedded in the embrace of water, the mothers womb, as a gateway home. It is a multidisciplinary collection of art, containing poetry, visual and performance art. Alongside that, in her artistic research project “Tongues Untied" she is foregrounding matriarchal principles in the creative process to reignite our kinship between the natural and unseen worlds. In her work as a somatic facilitator, through intimate one on one and group experiences, she embraces a holistic approach and integrative methods to reconnect to the vast intelligence of our body and the earth. Moreover through her ongoing training in traditional midwifery, she is dedicated to supporting women through their rite of passage and reclaiming our ancestral traditions. These roles became an integral part of her practice, continue to inform each other and continuously inspire her creative endeavours.

Yamina's work exemplifies a commitment to nourishing individuals and nurturing communities through creative inquiry, embodied expression, and a deep reverence for the interconnected web of life. She envisions a future where the intelligence of our bodies lead the way and where art serves as a catalyst for connection and liberation in an ever-evolving world.****

 

ABOUT Karen Aguiar (Cultural Producer)

Karen Aguiar is a socially engaged artist, performer and cultural producer who believes in the transformative power of dance to unite people and nurture collective spaces. As the founder and creative director of Go Dance For Change, a platform for intercultural collaboration, Karen envisions dance as a means of meaningful integration, individual growth, and collective action.

She has been producing dance and performance in Ireland since 2018 working with artists Alessandra Azevedo, Kate O'Shea, Tobi Balogun, Rob Heaslip, Tara Brandel, Tobi Omoteso, Lapree Lala, Favour Odusola, Yves Lorrhan, Vithória Escobar, Nick Nikolaou, and organisations such as Tallaght Community Arts, Noise Music South Dublin, Mother Tongues, The Five Lamps Arts Festival and others.

From 2022, she has been working with producer Gwen Van Spÿk through the Dance Building Blocks Mentorship Programme and it is also an socially engaged artist recipient of the Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award: Collaborative Arts and Dance funded by the Irish Arts Council, managed by Create in partnership with Dance Ireland. With a postgraduate study in Art & Ecology at NCAD and a residency at Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre, Karen's movement practice incorporates embodied ecologies, knowledge, activism, culture, and play.