The 7th edition of Light Moves Festival took place in Limerick city from 9 – 12 November 2023
Programme Snapshot
Introduction: Light Moves 2023 offered showcase of the richness and diversity of work from Ireland and across the world, as artists embraced dance, movement, and the screen as a powerful platform for activism and visibility and challenge social and gender inequalities.
Featuring both internationally-renowned and early-career artists, the festival’s sensual, playful, experimental and provocative programme, curated by Jürgen Simpson and Jessie Keenan, included seven live performances with four new commissions and the festival’s fourth exhibition of screendance works at Limerick City Gallery of Art, alongside engaging talks and workshops.
Opening Events & In the Gallery: Light Moves Festival continued its collaboration with Limerick City Gallery of Art to present seven compelling and thought-provoking installations by prominent artists in the fields dance, visual art, and film.
The festival’s official opening on the evening of Thursday 9 November 2023 coincided with the opening of the gallery installations called In The Gallery, which had an extended opening period until Sunday 28 January 2024.
The works on display at the gallery were; Somewhere in the Body by Áine Stapleton, Orchard Portraits by Rosemary Lee with Roswitha Chesher, Swinguerra by Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Everything was Singing by Robin Parmar, Progression (freestyle) by Anna Macdonald, This Endless Sea by Chloë Smith & Lucy Cash, and Dance and Eye by Oguri, Andrew Macpherson, Richard Nielsen, Atiba Jefferson, Ricardo Vidana, Roxanne Steinberg, Tali Maranges and Morleigh Steinberg.
A short film screening at Dance Limerick concluded the opening events. Filmmakers included Lucia Kickham, Luca Truffarelli, Emma Martin, Hugh O’Conor, and Stephanie Keane alongside international work by Anna Bogomolova, Andrew Margetson and Irina Kononova, Poppy Payne and Kuldip Singh-Barmi, Kati Kallio, Magali Charrier and Simon Ellis.
Other Irish and Ireland based artists whose films screened during the festival included Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Catherine Young, Colin Norrby and Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company, Rob Heaslip, Aneta Dortová, Natasha Bourke, Alex Vostokova, and Kat Cooley and the Irish Aerial Creation Centre, while musicians including Cormac Begley, MuRli, and Moisés Mas Garcia appeared on soundtracks.
Performances: Liz Roche Company’s Alternately Terrific and Gentle is an expansive, multidimensional film installation with live performance, inspired by a rich tapestry of texts, music, letters, and visual art, and had two sold-out performances on the evening of Friday 10 November at the Belltable. Created by ensemble of three groundbreaking choreographers/performers – Jodi Melnick (New York), Liz Roche (Dublin) and Jenny Roche (Limerick).
Writhe was an improvised performance by Péist and Aoibhinn O’Dea, also on Friday 10 November, at Dance Limerick. Péist (transl. worm) is a group of five Limerick based musicians and artists. In their improvisations, they wriggle and writhe between sounds and musical forms, burrowing through the dirt. They utilise a mix of synthesisers, electro-acoustic instruments, and purpose-built software to improvise music and experiment in sound.
Facing Traces was an intimate collective listening session to voices of queer BIPOC by Priiya Prethora.
SPIRAL at the festival was the latest in a series of events exploring interactions between music, dance, and the moving image, rooted in multidisciplinary collaboration and experimentation, taking place in both urban locations and indoor concert setting. Spiral 2023 featured five new works on Saturday 11 November including Loop’n’Groove: Micro-choreographies of the past by award-winning artist / composer Barbara Ellison and Spiral: In The City, a free event at Arthur’s Quay Park, featuring four absorbing dance and music artist duos: Nick Bryson and Bryan O’Connell; Jenn Kirby and Isabella Oberländer; Magdalena Hylak and Lionel Kasparian, and Jürgen Simpson and Angie Smalis.
Festival guests: The festival welcomed two international-acclaimed dance artists, Rosemary Lee and Siobhan Davies, to Limerick for the festival weekend to present work.
Presentations & Workshops: Renowned British director, dancer and choreographer Siobhan Davies returned to the festival a special In Conversation event hosted by Mary Wycherley, Director of Dance Limerick. As part of the discussion, Davies introduced her film Transparent, created in collaboration with David Hinton and Hugo Glendinning, a gentle manifesto and a visionary work of art itself.
Tanin Torabi, an Iranian artist works in the realm of performance, choreography, and film lead both a two day workshop and a presentation. Coming from a sociology background, Tanin holds an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the University of Limerick.
Being Place by Dr. Beatrice Jarvis was a unique opportunity to embark on an immersive exploration of Limerick city. Prompted by a self-guided walk accompanied by score-based offerings, participants used cameras to cultivate eco-somatic awareness with sessions over three days of the festival.
Kate Lawrence, Alex Ashcroft, and Karina Jones presented a discussion forum exploring the potential and challenges of screen-based work that embeds access for blind and visually impaired people at each stage of production and exhibition. The forum focused on their recent project Yn Y Golau (In-Visible Light), as Karina discussed the experience of access from her perspective as a visually impaired performer, audience member and access consultant.
Awards: Light Moves announced 4 award winners in 2023, featuring films that demonstrated particular artistic excellence in their exploration of screendance by challenging and renewing its scope and direction.
Light Moves Student Merit Award Winner 2023, sponsored by Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University of Limerick: Dreaming of Rare Moments, Dry Tones, And Air Trapped Eternally Between Pieces of Metal – A film by Aneta Dortová.
Light Moves Innovative use of Music and Sound Award, sponsored by Contemporary Music Centre: Amid the Noise and the Haste – A film by Colin Norrby, sound by Colin Norrby.
Light Moves Choreography and/or Performance Award, sponsored by Dublin Dance Festival: Sentence – A film by Rosemary Lee and Hugo Glendinning.
Light Moves Overall Film Award: Transparent – A film by Siobhan Davies in collaboration with David Hinton and Hugo Glendinning.
Read more about the awards and Adjudicator’s notes here.
Venues
- Dance Limerick
- Limerick City Gallery of Art
- Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
- Belltable
- The People’s Park
Light Moves Festival 2023 was funded by the Arts Council and Limerick City and County Council. The festival is supported by partners Dance Limerick, CSIS, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, and DMARC at the University of Limerick, Belltable, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Dance Ireland and the British Council.
Photo credit Maurice Gunning.