'Dusk Ahead' dance theatre production

description

Exploring blindness and invisibility, 'Dusk Ahead' shows the fading light of dusk when it is difficult to discern what is real and what is imagined. ‘We are more closely connected to the invisible than to the visible’ Novalis. The high-calibre cast of international and Irish performers will also act as the band, playing live music throughout the piece.

***** ‘Beautiful, delicate, superb; you'd be lucky to see it' The Sunday Times on Bird with boy (Winner Best Production)

The Fund it campaign is to help towards one musician’s fee to rehearse and perform in the production. The campaign is also to help towards travel and accommodation for three international performers.

The work is choreographed and created by Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy with visual and costume design by Sabine Dargent. The music is composed by Denis Clohessy and the lighting design by Sarah Jane Shiels.

Continuing our commitment to inter-disciplinary and collaborative work, junk ensemble will work with five dancers, designers and a composer to create an original new dance work. We are intrigued by the different ways of seeing or perceiving things and not seeing something at all, so that in effect, it becomes invisible. The lighting will be carefully constructed to represent varying times of the day, in particular the murky light of dusk.

***** 'Unsettling, raw and even beautiful… heartbreaking' The Irish Times on Bird with boy

junk ensemble was established in 2004 by joint Artistic Directors Megan Kennedy and Jessica Kennedy, with a commitment to creating works of brave and imaginative dance theatre. Winners of Best Production Award 2011, Culture Ireland Touring Award in 2008, Excellence and Innovation Award in 2007 and listed as a Sunday Times Highlight in 2011, junk ensemble’s work continues to tour nationally and internationally. Our productions are often created in collaboration with artists from other disciplines to produce a rich mix of visual and performance styles that seeks to challenge the traditional audience performer relationship. This approach has led to productions being created in non-traditional or found spaces as well as more conventional theatre spaces. junk ensemble were Artists in Residence at Tate Britain, London (2012) and Fingal County Council (2010/11) and Artistic Directors of Drogheda Youth Dance (2007). Productions include The Falling Song (U.K. & National Tour 2014/Belfast Festival 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2012), Bird with boy (Dublin Theatre Festival 2012/Dublin Fringe Festival 2011), Five Ways to Drown (National Tour 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2010), Sometimes we break (Tate Britain Commission 2012), Pygmalian Revisited (Áix-en-Provence Festival Commission 2010), Drinking Dust (2008), and The Rain Party (2007). junk ensemble are part of Project Catalyst, an initiative of Project Arts Centre.

'junk ensemble have guts and ingenuity' The Irish Times

The first stage of development will take place at Dance City, Newcastle in June 2013 in the form of a residency as part of an ongoing relationship between junk ensemble and Dance City. Dusk Ahead is commissioned by Kilkenny Arts Festival celebrating its 40th festival and is co-produced by Project Arts Centre.