PRESS RELEASE
UCC Creative
Dance / Theatre Artist Commission 2024
HELGA DEASY
in collaboration with Gleann a’ Phúca, Dance Cork Firkin Crane
& UCC’s Environmental Research Institute
Through the Valley She Runs
Location: Glen River Park, Cork
Sat 28th Sept @ 6.15pm at the Yin Yang sculpture
Free Event – All Welcome
UCC Creative is delighted to announce that the successful artist for this commission is the choreographer / dance artist Helga Deasy. Passionate about the transformative potential of dance, Helga’s work explores themes of identity, belonging, migration and care. Her practice encompasses performance making, cross-disciplinary collaboration and socially engaged dance, including work in arts and health settings. She is a lead-facilitator on the Teacher Artist Partnership Programme and an early-years practitioner with Graffiti Theatre Company. www.helgadeasydance.com
For the UCC Creative commission Helga has made a new work called Through the Valley She Runs which will be performed in the Glen River Park in Cork on Sat 28th Sept @ 6.15pm. This performance is part of a larger event celebrating the recent work of Gleann a’Phúca with artists and communities at Glen River Park – more info. here.
Through the Valley She Runs is a performance of dance and live music in Glen River Park made in collaboration with dance artist Sara Hernandez and singer/musician Susan McManamon. The work is also informed by insights on river ecology and the impact of pollution on aquatic environments through a collaboration with aquatic ecologist Dr Neil Coughlan, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.
Through the Valley She Runs explores the relationship between imagination and riverscape sensitively drawing attention to the Glen River as a source of life, healing and regeneration. In a co-creative process with the river, the artists respond to the natural environment of the Glen, interweaving movement and sound in a meandering dance which follows the river, its energy and flow. Through the Valley She Runs explores how a practice of dance, sound and embodied awareness can create new ways of knowing and bring about perceptual transformation in how we relate to and connect with the natural world.
This commission also builds on UCC Creative’s commitment to innovative Artist – Science collaborations. In 2022 / 23 UCC Creative partnered with UCC’s Environmental Research Institute to pilot two Dance Artist / Plant Scientist residencies in collaboration with the Crespo Foundation & Dance Cork Firkin Crane. This led to collaborative choreographic / scientific enquiries between Dance Artist Gráinne O’Carroll and UCC Plant Scientist Rossanna Henriques, and Dance Artist Isabella Oberländer and UCC Plant Scientist Eoin Lettice at Glenkeen Gardens in West Cork.
Further Information: Director of UCC Creative – Professor Jools Gilson / jgilson@ucc.ie
How to Get to Glen River Park:
