Dance Limerick and Limerick Arts Office, Limerick City and County Council are pleased to announce that contemporary dance artist and filmmaker Mary Wycherley will be Limerick’s new Dance Artist-in-Residence.
Mary’s appointment will provide the opportunity for her to connect with the Limerick community through collaborative opportunities, mentorships and curatorial activities, as well as supporting her creative practice.
The Dance Artist Residency scheme is a partnership between the artist, Dance Limerick and Limerick Arts Office, Limerick City and County Council and is funded by the Arts Council. The residency is based at Dance Limerick’s impressive facilities for dance at John’s Square.
As an artist, director, curator and educator, Mary Wycherley has long been an advocate for innovative modes of presentation for dance and movement. Her work embraces live performance, choreography and film and has been presented at festivals and galleries throughout Ireland, Europe and the US. Her screendance feature film “In the Bell’s Shadow” premiered in 2015 and is being shown internationally including the Galway Film Fleadh, The Lighthouse Cinema and the American Dance Festival. Mary has forged ongoing collaborations with internationally renowned artists such as Joan Davis, Mary Nunan, Jürgen Simpson and Yoshiko Chuma. She is a director and curator of Light Moves, Ireland’s first festival of screendance, and a guest lecturer at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL.
Announcing details of the scheme, Jenny Traynor, Director of Dance Limerick, said “We’re really pleased that Mary Wycherley will be our new Dance Artist-in-Residence. Mary has extensive experience in dance and screendance/film and we’re very excited that she can bring this expertise and vision to the project. Mary takes over the mantle from Megan Kennedy, who led a number of exciting initiatives over the past year, including the dance theatre production “Marble and Bread” at The Sailor’s Home and the setting up of Limerick Dance Collective. We’re really lucky in Limerick to have another artist of such high calibre taking over the role and we’re really looking forward to working with Mary over the next 12 months”.
Dr Pippa Little, Assistant Arts Officer with Limerick City and County Council, stated: “Limerick Arts Office is delighted that this partnership, with artist Mary Wycherley and Dance Limerick, will bring new dance work to audiences in Limerick and nationally. This residency makes an essential contribution to the cultural ecology of dance in Limerick. It offers new opportunities to dance practitioners, through Mary’s strong mentoring role, presents newly commissioned work and, with Light Moves, Ireland’s festival of screendance, which Mary directs and curates, creates a space for innovative work in screendance. These types of partnerships are a rewarding and valuable way of developing strategies for audiences and form a vital approach to Limerick 2020, the bid for European Capital of Culture”.
Mary Wycherley added “I’m delighted to have this time to engage with ideas, people and the city and county of Limerick. Focusing on cultural and political questions within the creative process, I am looking forward to exploring new approaches, developing new materials, and forging new collaborations”.
Dance Artist Residency Scheme
The purpose of the Dance Artist Residency scheme is to stabilise and support a network of dance artists in residence throughout Ireland. The work programme for each residency is designed by the dance artist in collaboration with their host venue and local authority. The Dance Artist Residency in Limerick is a partnership between the artist, Dance Limerick and Limerick Arts Office, Limerick City and County Council. Funded by the Arts Council, the aims of the scheme are:
– to consolidate professional and community-based dance practice in a regional context;
– to offer opportunities to dance artists throughout Ireland to engage in a programme of artistic work relevant to their own practice;
– to offer opportunities to local authorities and organisations/venues to develop dance practice in their area;
– to encourage the development of long-term planning and sustainability of independent dance activities.
