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Going Under - a film by dancer Catherine Donnelly


Navigating a Future: This commission gave selected artists an opportunity to research and create new work that explores and reflects on questions, insights and themes that have arisen from the Covid-19 pandemic and our future. 

Going Under, a movement and dance artwork by Catherine Donnelly, Dance Artist.

An interesting aspect of the work has been exploring my relationship with music. This is the first time I have had an opportunity to work with a musician composing an original soundtrack and the process has been full of the unexpected. Asked, what do you want?...I began a process of exploring sounds, silence, instruments, moods, vibrations, how they affect how I feel and move.  And the process continued......

As my work on the commission comes to a close, I realise that it has kept me company for the past year or more and releasing the finished piece is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. I have written and danced and talked and danced and danced some more, processing my thoughts, trying to make sense of them and decipher what the work was about. I have reached the conclusion that for me, it has been about letting go, letting go of what cannot be controlled, and trusting, in the face of fear, chaos, turmoil and doubt, trusting and surrendering to the process - what is meant to be will be. Power lies within, under the skin. Focusing on being aware and conscious of choices made. What energy in motion, what vibrations and ripples are emanating and being sent out into the universe? And are they for the greater good? I hope so.

Special thanks and gratitude to Mayo County Council, Mayo Arts Office, Breda Mayock, Archie Erskine Hadden, my family and friends for their support.

Catherine will be a dance artist in residence in Ballina Arts Centre during 2022 and is currently working with Mayo Education Centre on the new BLAST, Arts in Education programme.

Catherine Donnelly, 17th December 2021.

Artist profile available here.

Image Credits: Archie Erskine Hadden, Sasquatch Studios.

 

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