Macushla & Age on Stage 'Pen-pal Dance Scheme'

Members (and friends) of Machushla Dance Club and Age on Stage have joined to write letters to each other over a 6 month period, taking the opportunity to recollect and reflect on any dance related memories or stories, past and present and future, which will form the material for a new shared dance piece.

At a dance-together hosted by Age on Stage in Lisburn in March, willing individuals were allocated a pen-pal (names selected out of a hat by the Lord Mayor of Lisburn) and invited to write concise, theme focused letters, keeping a copy of each letter sent.

In September, all copies will be collected, read through by a creative team from the two dance groups, and drawn from as the sources for generating a combined dance piece.  Exciting nuggets are already being revealed, as participants excitedly recount letters about courting dances, flirtations with sailors, and bareback riding to summer dances.

Funding and resources permitting, this new dance work will be performed in both Lisbrun and Dublin in 2011.

Age on Stage and the Macushla Dance Club have been forging a dance relationship since 2007, with visits to each others’ dance workshops and socials. The next meeting is at the Macushla Dance Club’s Mansion House ball, hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Anthea McWilliams, director of Age on Stage, has choreographed a number of works for the group, and is currently touring a solo-show based on her 50th birthday celebratory ‘dance up Ireland’ in a camper van. The Macushla Dance Club has collaborated with Ciotóg since 2008 in commissioning new dance works for professional and older dancers, its latest being Tipping Point by Ríonach Ní Néill, premiering in the Hugh Lane Gallery during the Bealtaine Festival.

Enjoy Macushla's 'Tipping Point' on Friday 14 May, Saturday 15 May, Friday 21 May at 1.30pm and Sunday 23 May at 3pm in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.