Coisceim and Hugh Lane Collaboration, Flesh and Bones

• 
11 December 2010 - 12 January 2010

CoisCéim Broadreach and The Hugh Lane present

THE CHOREOGRAPHY PROJECT
in
Flesh and Bones

Performances Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 December, 3pm

Flesh and Bones is the culmination of the fourth Choreography Project, and was the result of collaboration between CoisCéim Broadreach and The Hugh Lane. Led by choreographer Philippa Donnellan and Hugh Lane Education Curator Katy Fitzpatrick, the theme of the project was the paintings and working methods of painter Francis Bacon.

The Choreography Project began with a guided lecture tour for participants of Bacon’s work. The evident physicality and visceral quality in much of Bacon’s work – with its intense focus on the body – provided us as dancers with a distinctive focus and clear point of departure.

Over the course of six weeks we discussed, debated, danced and observed together. We worked creatively in what was a lively process of choreographic investigation and discovery. During the process, amongst many ideas, the notion of wrestling gradually surfaced as a theme to explore; wrestling with ideas, choreographic images, artistic processes – as well as the physical act of wrestling itself. The idea of the ‘shadow’ as seen in a number of Bacon’s paintings was also a theme people chose to develop choreographically. This idea reveals perhaps something softer and more intimate at play in some of the work created.

Bacon’s paintings, and his studio which is on permanent exhibition at The Hugh Lane, provided a rich source of inspiration for everyone involved. We have only scratched the surface in delving into Bacon’s dense and complex work.