National Dance Residency Partnership
I am delighted to be this year’s National Dance Residency Partnership artist. I will be using this time to research and develop my new work Queen of the Meadows.
About the National Dance Residency Partnership
The NDRP is a partnership between Dance Ireland, Dance Limerick, Firkin Crane, Galway Dance Project and Tipperary Dance to provide a networked support to choreographers in the production of new dance work. By coming together, the partners acknowledge that their collective infrastructure and resources can go further and encourage more ambition in the dance sector.
Each partner is contributing financially and in-kind space to one choreographer which will allow for six weeks rehearsal time across the country. This award includes a financial award of €10,000 to support the residencies and invest in the development of the new work, a bursary for the successful choreographer to attend Tipperary Dance International Festival, and the time and support of artistic staff.
Through this award, it is NDRP’s intention to open up the model of making dance work in Ireland by de-centralising opportunities throughout the country, whilst building networked production models supported by a strong partnership infrastructure.
NDRP & Queen of the Meadows - Robyn Byrne
"It's very daunting to take your first steps as a choreographer. I have been craving the time to develop my work in a non pressured environment, where I have the space to try new ideas, to throw them out, to try again and to slowly refine over a period of time. I'm so excited that I have been given the space through NDRP to do just this. I will be using this time to continue devising a new work, Queen of the Meadows, whilst also building invaluable connections across the major dance organisations in the country.
The inspiration for Queen of the Meadows came after the passing of my grandmother. I wanted to honour her life through dance and performance and pay tribute to a generation of women who, along with their folklore are slowly disappearing. I remember growing up around my grandmother’s unconventional, “old fashioned” ways; putting cobwebs on my cut knees instead of plasters, knocking on wood or having bizarre cures for various ailments. I always recall these moments in my head with such theatricality that they almost seemed otherworldly, absurd and far-fetched.
I will be devising this work in collaboration with Danish dancer Susanne Engbo- Andersen. Over the course of the NDRP, we will develop the choreographic language of the piece and contextualise our work through historical and social research. Through movement, sound, text and song we will take the essence of Old Wives Tales to build scenes and universes that are visually, sonically and emotionally rich."
- Robyn Byrne
