Fearghus Ó Conchúir Choreographer and Dance Artist
January 27, 2022

Dancing More Wisely: “How long do you plan on doing this for?”

Two Zoom screens in the photo with strips of black above and below.  In the left hand box a smiling woman with cerise top and a greying bob against a grey background.  In the right hand a woman in a black top with her right hand raised and her blonde hair pulled back while a man in a blue hoodie with dark hair turns his head to look at her.

I’ve always been drawn to dance artists who are performing when it’s beyond the expected, people whose persistent dancing may be surplus to conventional requirement, not normal (let’s say in the statistical sense). Part of this project of Dancing More Wisely is to reflect on what allows some to persist, to investigate what conditions, what personal, social, economic, physical conditions would allow more people to have sustainable dance lives (and careers) if they wished. And resourced with that wisdom, how we might resist the pressure to use it all up quickly because no one envisages you’ll be around for the long haul?

I was struck by Annie’s mention of a well-intentioned question from someone she met. They asked her: “How long do you plan on doing this for?” It’s a question with a lot of potential – a genuine enquiry, an expectation that it should finish, a judgement that it’s already gone on too long. I’m embracing it as a potential title – perhaps it’s the title of this little dance.

What looks like a duet is in fact a trio with Olga. I think it’s the coolest dancing I’ve done all year

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