A trip home, and a visit to Ré Órga

As many of you know, expandance celebrated 5 years in existence last week. To celebrate, I flew home to Ireland from my current digs in NYC in order to be with Laurie and Alicia, and to meet with a couple of venues we may perform in in 2012. (More on that soon!) It was lovely to be back in Dun Laoghaire and to be able to catch a performance and a ballet class at Dance Ireland while in Dublin.

One of the highlights of the trip turned out to be my visit to Alicia's Over 60s expandancers Ré Órga at the George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow. Alicia speaks highly of this group - it's been going strong now with over 25 regulars in attendance for over a year - and I was looking forward to meeting them. What I didn't expect was their overwhelming welcome, nor their joyous and obviously solid rapport as a group.

I spoke with many of the dancers over their tea break and without exception they thought Alicia was 'full of enthusiasm' and great to work with, and enjoyed their weekly classes with her. I was also delighted to see them rehearse a couple of their fabulous, and quite beautiful performance pieces. 

Ladies: It was so lovely to meet you, after writing blog posts about you, hearing about you all for so long, and working with Alicia and GB Shaw on the administration required to get this programme off the ground. Thank you for such a generous welcome, and for your commitment to expandance!

- Rachel 

p.s. did you notice the new name? After months (and months!) of deliberation, Alicia, along with our Over 60's group has decided on a name: Ré Órga - literally translated from Irish it means "Golden Age" - but as our very own Donnacha MacAodhagáin explains, it's more than that: 'Ré is a lovely word - doesn't just mean an age, or period of time, but is an old Irish word for the moon, too - which they used to measure time, long long ago....'

Dancing down South....

 Photo credit:  Maria Nilsson Waller

Alicia had a great day performing at the Fusion Dance Platform in Waterford yesterday.  Thank you to Libby Seward and Animated State Dance Theatre for the wonderful opportunity!  Alicia showed a solo excerpt of a new work she's developing in collaboration with Laurie.  The audience was interested, supportive, and full of feedback, which added to the success of the performance.  Alicia and Laurie will perform the piece December 8th at Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge as part of Comfort Dance, a shared evening of contemporary dance by expandance and Folded Productions.  Check out this link to book your tickets, http://www.riverbank.ie/shows/comfort-dance

Happy 5th Birthday expandance!

Happy Birthday to us!
Laurie, Alicia and I managed to be in the same country, the same city AND the same restaurant this evening to celebrate 5 years together as a company. We had a good time, as you can see...

Thank you to all of you who have supported us over the last five years: to all our dancers, collaborators, families, friends, our teachers, our mentors, our supporters, our funders, to the people who showed up at performances even when it was raining, to those of you who helped us with technological things we didn't understand, with websites and lighting and music and costumes and marketing questions and everything in between.  

You're all amazing and we love you.

- Rachel Wynne, Laurie Schneider, Alicia Christofi-Walshe

Upcoming Performance Sat Oct 29th

Alicia Christofi-Walshe performs a solo section of a duet currently being made with Laurie Schneider at FUSION - part of the Imagine Arts Festival this year.

Date: Saturday 29th October 2012 at 2 pm 

Location: The Large Room, City Hall, the Mall, Waterford.

Entry: €5

FUSION showcases original works by Irish choreographers in an informal setting, with audience Q&A afterward.

FUSION Choreography Platform is an initiative of Animated State Dance Theatre Company, promoting the next generation of Irish based dancers and choreographers. This dance platform celebrates collaboration, fusion and experimentation across all arts disciplines.