People passing through Temple Bar's Meeting House Square after 9.30 p.m. on Thursday evening, attracted by the music and light, joined the crowd collected in front of the huge screen covering the entire front of the Gallery of Photography. There they were instantly arrested by an enormous image of Spanish dancer Mariam Ribon captured in mid-leap.
To music by Ciaran Farrell, already used by choreographer John Scott in previous dance work such a Slam and Perfect State, photographer Chris Nash used stills of members of Scott's Irish Modern Dance Theatre against a background of shifting decorative patterns, sliding the dancers on or materialising them, to form multiple images. Running for only 20 minutes, the film was repeated until 11.30 p.m., and many stayed to watch it through more than once, amongst them groups of people who had probably never before watched a dance performance, though they may well do so in future. This was presumably the hope of the Arts Council, whose Winning Your Audience special grant meant that the event, repeated on Friday, was free.
This is admirable and an innovative project for Scott. Perhaps one day he may take the experiment further by collaborating with a photographer who works in animated film as well as electronic decors, enabling him to produce multiple moving figures.