Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

The performances at this year’s Dublin Dance Festival polarised, provoked and entertained – just as they should, writes SEONA Mac RÉAMOINN

IF YOU were to feed all of the diverse images, gestures, moves, scores, and ideas from this year’s Dublin Dance Festival from 24 artists and companies into an imaginary computer, the resulting cross-referenced material might indicate reams of interweavings and interconnecting themes. No doubt that is what DDF director Laurie Uprichard hoped for as she went about crafting the programme for this year’s festival. Its central theme may have been taken from the poetic title of Raimond Hoghes’ festival piece, Young People, Old Voices, but this was only departure point for the other parallel and underlying themes, which explored the many bodies of contemporary dance and the act of performance itself.