Following its sold-out two night run at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2022, Catherine Young Dance is bringing new show, A Call To You, to the Town Hall Theatre, on Tuesday May 2, as part of a national tour.
Featuring a cast of outstanding international performers and live music and inspired by Ukrainian folk dance traditions, A Call To You is a passionate celebration of life, togetherness and dance. It offers an antidote to the imagery of war and the endless rhetoric of politics. As words fail, the body now speaks – untamed and unapologetic.
Catherine was living in Galway years ago when she decided to move to San Francisco and train to be a dancer. She then came back to Ireland a few years later and did an MA in Contemporary Performance in the University of Limerick. How did it compare, studying dance in San Francisco and then back here in Limerick? "It was certainly more diverse over there," says Catherine. "There was just a lot of different styles of dance, so many more to stick your teeth into."
Catherine's time in San Francisco instilled in her a love for exploring, and communicating through, dance forms. In the same way language is a tool we use to communicate, so is dance. "I guess that kind of interculturalism has become a huge part of my practice and I make work because of that. I love to learn another culture's style of dance so I can try and understand a little bit more about who they are. It's a lovely way to connect with people."
Catherine has taken this wonderful concept a step further with The Welcoming Project, an intercultural dance and music programme to foster creativity, well-being, cultural integration and social inclusion.
Devised with the idea of connecting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with locals in their new communities, the project encompasses workshops on African dance, Palestinian dabke and more. No experience is required and the workshops are free of charge. "At the moment we're particularly trying to offer a way for Ukrainians to integrate," says Catherine.
What inspired this new show, A Call To You? "I tend to make political, socially engaged work. My previous show was about Palestine; the show before that was about direct provision. So I had been working on fairly heavy shows since 2016, and I personally felt the need to work on a relatively lighter show! I also think audiences need to experience joy when they come to the theatre, especially now when the world is such a heavy place. So while the piece was intended to be wholly joyful, just after we started rehearsing, Putin invaded Ukraine."
Catherine and her team couldn't ignore this drastic change of events, it was in the room with them whether they liked it or not. Instead of creating something sorrowful and dark, she decided to focus on what happens when we come together to support each other in the face of devastation. "Whether we know it or not, everything we do is influenced by others, and has an impact on others. The show looks at that whole idea of thinking we're autonomous, and being isolated, to reconnecting and finding communities. There is a kind of friction in community as well, which we explore." The show incorporates many different styles of traditional dance including African and Ukrainian. Catherine explains how fitting the Ukrainian folk dance is with the concept of the show. "When we began to look at Ukrainian folk dances, we realised they're all built around the idea of community. They all need eight people or more, so they don't work unless there is a group of people dancing together. It's the metaphoric backbone of the show. There's a lot of joy in there."
Tickets are available from here
