IAC Commissions: Liz Roche

“Dance captures the body; its patterns, movements, expressions and energies. A person can say a thing but if their body isn't behind it, it doesn't have any weight or conviction.”—Liz Roche on RTÉ

Liz Roche is artistic director and choreographer of Liz Roche Company. The company has produced and toured her dance works throughout Ireland and internationally at venues and festivals including the Baryshnikov Arts Centre, South Bank Centre London, Meet in Beijing Festival, and Powerhouse Brisbane. In 2015 the company premiered Bastard Amber, commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival, and Kilkenny Arts Festival, the first time an Irish choreographer was commissioned to create a full length dance work for the main stage of Ireland’s national theatre.

Recent commissions include: I/Thou for Cork Opera House and Sirius Arts Centre; The Here Trio, a cross-border commission for Maiden Voyage Belfast; and Totems, a site specific work for the National Gallery of Ireland. Having recently completed a three-year residency at Dublin Dance Festival, the company is currently in residence at the Irish World Academy at University of Limerick.

Liz has also choreographed extensively in theatre and opera for the Abbey and Gate Theatres, Landmark Productions, the Lyric Theatre Belfast, Irish National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Rossini Festival Pesaro, Opernhaus Zurich, National Opera of Korea, and Liceu Barcelona.

Photo credit: Alan Gilsenan

Luca Truffarelli is a freelance photographer and video maker based in Dublin. He graduated in photography in 2011 and started experimenting and challenging himself in the field of visual arts. Over the past few years he has been involved in contemporary dance and theatre works as a photographer/video maker, visual/set designer and artistic collaborator.

The pandemic has forced humanity into an involuntary state of uncertainty that may last a long time. This is troubling, of course, but, as with any of life’s terribly sad moments, is not without redemptive possibility. We are challenged to find a new comfort level with uncertainty as a more constant companion. 

Like everyone, we at Irish Arts Center are entering a new phase of grappling with all of this. We still don’t know when it will be safe or allowable to gather in groups for live performing arts experiences. We continue to innovate our digital programming and prepare for our magnificent new building that awaits us, soon enough we hope. We develop scenarios and contingency plans. 

And we challenge ourselves to lean into the moment. For this, as ever, we rely on the artists. 

To that end, we have commissioned more than two dozen artists reflecting a range of perspectives across our artistic community, to create short works that respond to the idea of finding grace in uncertainty, to find meaning in the chaos, and perhaps even some redemption, as we recognize the fear and sadness we feel. 

In his work On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic just weeks after 9/11, John Adams sought to create a “memory space” for those who suffered loss of life, of loved ones, of innocence, and to evoke the feeling “that we are all united by a common bond of humanity.” 

In a similar spirit, we wish to inspire a volume of artistic responses that might form a kind of tapestry of emotion, a chronicle of the moment, work that can be appreciated now and for the long-term.

The common bond of humanity unites these artists—and will carry us all through this moment.