Dancers fight back to answer critics

Flashback 2004/Dance: Having begun the year in the shadow of a court case, dance spent the rest of 2004 celebrating the body, writes Michael Seaver.

The dance community had mixed feelings about the coverage of the court action taken against International Dance Festival Ireland over a controversial performance in 2002. In spite of all the column inches little or no consideration was given to the artistic ideas behind Jérôme Bel's eponymous work, which involved nudity and urination.

And although the case was taken within the narrow confines of advertising law, dance was left open to ridicule. Indeed, it is ironic that an argument was made against the so-called lewdness of the naked body by applying the standards of the advertising industry, which has done more than most to undermine how we think and feel about our bodies. It promotes an image-driven society that devalues and commodifies our bodies as it constantly encourages us to battle and control them through diets, drugs and plastic surgery.

Numerous dance performances in 2004 answered back by celebrating the complexities and mysteries of everyday bodies. Vojtech Gajda, Jaroslav Synek and Eduard Cubr are three Czech men in their 50s who, having begun dancing earlier this year, performed with the choreographer Kristýna Lhotáková at this year's Dublin Fringe Festival. In doing so they faced down ageism and theatre's prejudice against non-dancers. Elsewhere, the Irish choreographer John Scott cast Joanna Banks, an older dancer formerly with Ballet Rambert and Irish National Ballet, in (Like) Silver, and Cathy O'Kennedy's Delicious Death blended professional and amateur dancers. These may seem small gestures, but they indicate the growing reflectiveness in Irish dancemaking.

Michael Klein of Daghdha Dance Company has quickly confirmed his reputation as an emotional conceptualist with Sediments Of An Ordinary Mind and Once Beneath The Skin, much in the tradition of his former mentor William Forsythe, albeit with a radically different vocabulary. Freer improvisation was seen at the Genesis Project, led by the dancers Ella Clarke and Julie Lockett, whose investigation of the works of the US choreographer Deborah Hay has broadened. They joined with other dancers and musicians in a summer residency at SS Michael & John, in Temple Bar. Saturday-afternoon "showings" were engagements between the performers and their audiences, who were invited to respond verbally and in writing.

Rebus, from Cork, presented an improvised performance in the Marie Celeste-like Arthouse during Dublin Fringe Festival. Joined by Neil C. Smith mixing sounds behind a laptop, the dancers Cindy Cummings, Nick Bryson and Maggie Harvey kept a stream of ideas spilling out around the abandoned balconies and staircases. Ella Clarke presented the considered and gentle Shutter, a collaboration with Selina Cartmell at Project, and later appeared in an adaptation of Hay's The Ridge as part of Novemberfest, at the Pavilion in Dún Laoghaire. This excellent mini-festival also gave a sneak preview of the work of Wolfgang Hoffman, the fringe festival's incoming director: his Pandora 88 was inspired by Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling.

The last hurrah of Hoffman's predecessor, Vallejo Gantner, before his move to P. S. 122, in New York, was very uneven and thinly spread. The influx of European choreographers was eagerly anticipated, and there were highlights in shows such as Serial Paradise and Remote Versions, but the Ignitions programmes (replacing the Aerowaves series) were hugely disappointing. Irish contributions were just as variable, with a lacklustre, ill-conceived production by Cork's Crux Dance Theatre alongside the more solidly theatrical offerings of Ríonach Ní Néill and Fearghus Ó Conchúir.

The fringe highlight was Thomas Lehmen's It Is Better To . . ., for Irish Modern Dance Theatre. A cerebral, human, funny and addictive quartet, it was the highlight of a good year for John Scott's company, recovering from last year's Arts Council cut. Scott also created Fall And Recover with, and for, victims of torture, as well as (Like) Silver, a new work.

Lehmen appeared earlier in the year, at International Dance Festival Ireland, with Distanzlos, a solo made up of ideas and offcuts from previous choreographies. This Euroconceptualism stuck out in an event once again based on old productions from the British festival Dance Umbrella. It is easy to play fantasy festival director, but there seems a clear rationale for more independent thinking around programming. International uninterest will remain if most of the dance is presented in London six months previously. And while opportunities to see works such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Rain are undoubtedly welcome, the derivative programming contrasts with the likes of Galway Arts Festival, which snuffled out the wonderful James Thiérrée and packed the Black Box night after night, following up last year's The Junebug Symphony with the visually stunning La Veillée.

International Dance Festival Ireland has also yet to commission a major work, whether from an Irish or an international choreographer. In contrast, Project has continued to support emerging choreographers, commissioning Rebecca Walters's Beat Box Bingo in the summer, while Mermaid Arts Centre, in Bray, began its series of commissions with a new work by Liz Roche, called Cross Purposes. Roche also travelled to China as part of the China-Ireland cultural exchange, as did CoisCéim's David Bolger, with his Mermaids. He is another choreographer showing a more reflective side, with his chamber work Chamber Made and a series of workshops and discussions by leading British choreographers entitled Choreographic Manoeuvres. He also enjoyed a successful début as an opera director with his production of Orfeo Ed Euridice, a hit in the media as well as with audiences.

Ballet, which also suffered at the hands of the Arts Council last year, rejuvenated itself. Cork City Ballet brought the Kirov dancers Veronika Ivanova and Nikita Scheglov to Ireland earlier this month, along with Chika Temma, who appeared in the spring season with Zhannat Atymtaye. Along with bleeding chunks of classic works they have commissioned local choreographers, to varying success, but the overall package is proving popular with audiences.

Ballet Ireland toured extensively with Ballet Fireworks and The Nutcracker, and although the company continues to do well at the box office it still suffers from drab choreography. A Choreographic Platform and opportunities for company members to create work is a welcome development, and the cleverly constructed and witty School For Lovers, by Stephen Brennan, made the case for casting the net a bit wider.

The St Petersburg and Perm State ballets visited with the customary Nutcrackers, Swan Lakes and Cinderellas, the latter featuring the Irish dancer Monica Loughman, who also picked up on the prevailing reflectiveness by publishing her autobiography, The Irish Ballerina.

Take five . . .

. . . highlights

1Rain Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Rain, at International Dance Festival Ireland, was both visceral and intellectually satisfying. Her virtuoso construction showed flows of energy and wonderful spiralling spatial patterns that dissipated as the dancers brushed against shimmering ropes at the back of stage. A confident statement for dance at the Abbey.

2 Fête de la Danse The Institute for Choreography and Dance presented a mini-festival of French and Canadian dance. Christian Rizzo's billowing dresses upstairs at Grand Parade post office, in Cork, was simple and mesmeric. Daniel Léveillé's new work, Amour, Acide Et Noix, took longer to convince but remains in the memory.

3 It Is Better To . . . Thomas Lehmen broke the audience- performer divide with a quartet whose charm and thoughtfulness belied the careful preparation and tight construction behind the scenes.

4 Irina Kolesnikova as Clara It's not a classic dramatic character, but Irina Kolesnikova treated it as if it were in the St Petersburg Ballet production of The Nutcracker. The ideal combination of wide-eyed innocence with adolescent curiosity.

5 Hoofers Tapestry Dance Company's tribute to the Hoofers Club, in 1920s Harlem, with live music by Derek O'Connor was inexplicably poorly attended. A storming night with some virtuoso tap dancing.