In placing The Casement Project in the frame of the ART:2016 and 1418NOW commemoration programmes , I wanted to show how dance helps us understand ourselves, our history and what we might do together in the future. It was encouraging to have the recognition of the commemoration programmes that a dance project could take a major place among artistic responses to 1916.
As the year draws to a close, Dance Ireland has commissioned Michael Seaver to reflect on the place of dance in Ireland in 2016. And despite the uncertainties that the year has brought us, the good news is that dance has proved what it can contribute. According to Michael:
The dance artists that took part in 1916 Centenary events made artistic choices that focussed
on the individual rather than scratching post-colonial wounds. The body and the unique individual person inhabiting the body was paramount, in contrast to the military commemorations: members of the Defence Forces marching down O’Connell Street in choreographed homogeneity and anonymity
Read his essay here
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