We will use this residency to take our outdoor duet 'UNBOXED - Unpacking Prejudice,' into full creation and development ahead of a 2024 summer tour.

"UNBOXED" has been in development since 2020 and was initially in response to the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. The inspiration was to draw on Linden Directors, Chris and Sara's, different life experiences, as a mixed race male and white female, to explore prejudice and judgements they have experienced personally. The initial idea grew into the use of 2 large boxes representing both the weight we carry when faced with judgement and the block between two people with different life experiences.

FREE Sharing of work Thursday 22th February @7.30pm

On The Other Side《彼岸》started in 2020. In the past 3 years, there have been 5 major outputs - Trio, First Solo, Ensemble, Second Solo, Duet.《彼岸》has been taking on the imaginary perspective of people who have died, the realistic perspective(s) of people who are alive and grieving for those who are dead, and the imaginary contact between the two.

“I am looking forward to researching on how people walk through traumatic experiences involving other’s death through literature and documentary review. In the 2 weeks residency, bringing the knowledge and insight learnt, we will translate that into movement and choreography. The final performance in this residency, which is also a work in progress for this stage of《彼岸, will walk through the journey from sorrow and anger, to gaining resilience.”

FREE Sharing Thursday 7th March @7.30pm

“During this residency I will structure movement approaches and methods, drawing from Slovenian folklore, tales, pagan rituals, and customs, to gradually extract the central idea, movement expression, feeling, and aesthetic of this work. Prior to the residency, I will be undergoing extensive theoretical research in collaboration with my sister, who is an ethnologist and cultural anthropologist.

In the studio, I will work with three dancers, and a videographer, who will be following our movement experimentations to inform a film aesthetic and technical approaches to filming that will happen later on. As a part of the film research, I want to take advantage of the beautiful Shawbrook forest and use it as a backdrop for some film tests, as well as a test for potentially placing the future live performance in a forest.”

FREE Sharing Thursday 2nd May @7.30pm

“I would like to use this opportunity to bring myself and 1 videographer together to capture my ideas. Since 2020, like many I'm sure, I have been evolving and growing, questioning everything about myself. My research so far has giving me an idea for a solo video piece about the beauty of growing up in my household in rural Donegal. I also have a list of short video installation ideas about the primary school years of little blue uniforms and school tours and my sisters - the joy and delight that with comes from those years. A huge part of my research is about how I feel blessed among women. I have lived with 3 mother figures in my life, 3 sisters, 13 aunties, 33 female cousins. I have many many female friends who ooze nurture, who hold me in this life. I am fascinated by this depth of womanhood and what that is to me. I have short pieces of text I have written over the past 2 years that I want to explore moving to. I intend to write and move and explore many facets of this open theme, capturing short works through the eye of a camera.“

FREE Sharing Thursday 18th April @7.30pm

Catherine will be working on her new show Ciseach.

Ciseach is a pulsating contemporary incantation weaving together a tapestry of dance, rhythm, live music and voice that seeks to rekindle our broken relationship with the land.

Ciseach looks to the body, to the collective, in search of a new path as the ground beneath us yields. This stirring new work by CYD is an embodied manifesto – urging us to re-member, to re-connect with our past, with nature and with each other. Collecting fragments of native wisdoms, myths and kinships, Ciseach pieces together possible futures to build the wattled causeway, the ciseach to guide us to solid ground.

Funded by The Arts Council’s Arts Grant Fund, Backstage Theatre Longford and Kerry County Council, and supported by Project Arts Centre and Shawbrook Dance.

Show - Ciseach

Date/Time - Sat 15 Jun @ 8pm

Location - Backstage Theatre

TICKETS

Maxwell is looking to build on the incredible experience that she and Cinematographer/Filmmaker Taylor Antisdel had during the 2023 Shawbrook Creative Space Residency by bringing up to three Hivewild dancers, who are a part of Hivewild's current creative work 'with your sweet fragrance', to the 2024 residency.

'with your sweet fragrance' is Maxwell's newest project that aims to bring viewers face-to-face with the reality of the climate crisis and the long-term effects of ecological violence perpetuated by humans and encourages them to make choices that result in a more sustainable future.

Throughout the residency, Maxwell/Antisdel will work on mapping the various live, photography, film, sound, and scenic elements of 'with your sweet fragrance'. As choreographic scenes are created with the dancers, Maxwell/Antisdel will capture these on film in the natural environments of Shawbrook; these short vignettes will be extensions of Maxwell's solo that was created and filmed during the 2023 residency.

FREE Sharing Thursday 4th July @7.30pm

Laura will complete the development of, and then shoot, an experimental, non-narrative film she wrote called In the Mouth of a Lake. The film underwent a period of initial development in Shawbrook in May 2023 and has received project award funding from the Arts Council to be completed.

The film has five chapters. There is no script or dialogue in the film but instead she will utilise dance, movement, carefully selected set/costume elements, and sign interpretation to chronicle the unfolding of a series of intense and complex dynamics between mother and daughter.

FREE Sharing Thursday 18th July @7.30pm

Robyn returns to Shawbrook tow work with her collaborator Susanne Engbo Andersen and composer Joseph Anthony Lyons delve into the sonic world of the piece Queen of the Meadows.

“Our exploration centers around this question: How can we organically implement our electronic controllers in a way they interact instinctively with the narrative and physical gestures of the work? With a controller and editing software, communicating with contact and field microphones, we look to map our environment into a sonic register, to generate perspective and a positioning of a sound's roll within an environment. We will categorize the role of each sound as: sonic object, sonic subject, and sonic territory. We will begin by mapping distances, trying to replicate the natural landscape surrounding Shawbrook into a stage like environment where object sounds will be stationary, subject sounds will be in motion, and territories will be transient, coloured, and time dependent.”

FREE Sharing Thursday 1st August @7.30pm

“I will use this residency at Shawbrook to facilitate rehearsals before an expected tour of my current work, SHEDDING SKINS. I will teach the show to two new cast members & continue fine-tuning it before tour. SHEDDING SKINS is a visceral performance that follows the journey of two female-inhabiting people as they tackle recognizing & healing trauma stemming from sexual abuse, to reclaim their bodies & pleasure senses. Through intense physical movement & song, the audience acts as a witness to the experience of these two bodies regaining feeling, processing pain, and making peace with the past.“

FREE Sharing Thursday 15th August @7.30pm

“In the intimacy of the dancing studio, the team can work in the development of the choreography and the music according to the feelings that the surroundings evoque.

We'll be developing the script, choreography and music for the final piece which contains a poetical monologue and a live visual art piece.

Sharing the piece of performance / dance in current development is sharing my interpretation of the historical event that affected the whole world.

It will also help people to acknowledge the connection between Spain and Ireland and how both cultures affected one another in the artistic context.”

FREE Sharing Friday 30th August @7.30pm

Pelican Theatre are going to explore the processes that will  influence their practice going forwards as makers and artists, they hope to develop and question their ways of thinking about creation and collaboration, inspired by the unique landscape and atmosphere of Shawbrook.

The film work created will be shared widely via social media and their digital networks, potentially developed and entered for screenings and festivals.

The live aspect of the work will hopefully be an opportunity for them to explore working with their collaborators, Jemma Stein, Jack Richardson, and Malachi Briant. They hope that by being immersed creatively at Shawbrook as a group, they will not only create something that has a life to go on to be performed elsewhere, but also form the basis of longer term collaborations.

FREE Sharing Thursday 26th September @7.30pm