IAC Commissions: Oona Doherty

“One of the most exciting talents to emerge in contemporary dance.”—The Irish Times
 
Oona Doherty studied at the London School Of Contemporary Dance, University of Ulster and LABAN London, where she received her honors BA and post graduate degrees in contemporary dance studies. She has been performing dance theatre internationally since 2010 with companies such as TRASH (NL), Abbattoir Ferme (BE), Veronika Riz (IT), Emma Martin/United Fall (IE), and Enda Walsh (IE). Her choreography, including Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015/20), Hard to Be Soft—A Belfast Prayer (2017/20) and Lady Magma (2019/21), has toured extensively in Europe to critical acclaim. Awards include Aerowaves Selected Artist and Best Performer at the 2016 Dublin Fringe Festival (Hope Hunt), Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, Cognisance Grenoble judges' first place and audience 1st place, and the 2017 Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council Northern Ireland. Oona has been awarded the following residencies: 2016 MAC Theatre Belfast HATCH Artist, 2016/17 A Prime Cut Productions REVEAL Artist, 2017/18 Maison de la Danse Associate Artist Lyon, and 2017/19 La Briquetterie Associate Artist Paris.

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.