It’s too soon for me to write about the last weeks of Tabernacle rehearsals and the performances. But since the project has always been about openness and eliciting feedback it seems right to record and acknowledge what people have been saying in reviews, blogs, emails and facebook posts. Tabernacle will continue to grow, even as it is now dispersed in the dancers who have flown off to their independent lives, and in the audience who saw the work. We come back together to perform in the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August and what people are saying now will inform what the next steps are.
But, towering over all for intensity was Tabernacle , the final show of the festival in which choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir bravely steps into the minefield of the Irish body and its bruising and confusing encounters with the power of Catholic Church…. a layered work that is subtle, this work will surely merit a wider audience. Seona Mac Reamoinn, The Irish Times
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Tabernacle doesn’t extol or confront an audience with definitive concepts on the Catholc Church, but it refuses to shy away from it either. It’s a intricate balacing act that O’Conchúir has executed superbly, and more to the point, in a subtle and probing manner. This performance captures the process of how religion as a wider thematic structure provides a basis for the composition of ideals; how the individual learns, explores, manipulates or takes solace within this structure and how this layering of social and personal memory is reflected in the body. Eims O’Reilly, My Project blog Read review
Calmly conceived and intellectually robust, [Ó Conchúir’s artistic] strategy doesn’t just produce eloquent movement, it creates powerful art.
Michael Seaver, The Irish Times
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And what the audience said:
‘A truly powerful and moving experience’,
‘Its a really special piece – moving, provocative and engaging’
‘I thought it was incredibly rich. For me there were many moments as a spectator of being totally “in the moment” with the dance and dancers. And on the other hand, memories of the re-occurrence and repetition of moves and gestures, the various scenes, images and tableaux have been carried with me in memory since the performance. (Today, I think it needs to be seen twice!) ‘
‘It’s beautiful, intense, emotional and what I loved about it was the sense of joy that was so palpable and part of it, something I admit, I suppose due to the subject matter, I wasn’t expecting. The dancers were amazing’
‘This is the most amazing and wonderful dance show of the year’
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