| Year/Length: | 2019, 80’ (Italian premiere) |
|---|---|
| Created by: | Michael Keegan-Dolan |
| In collaboration with: | Teaċ Daṁsa |
| Music: | Cormac Begley, s t a r g a z e |
| With: | Imogen Alvares, Cormac Begley, Beatriz C. Bidault, Romain Bly, Kim Ceysens, Marlies van Gangelen, Caimin Gilmore, James O'Hara, Aki Iwamoto, Zen Jefferson, Mayah Kadish, Timon Koomen, Maaike van der Linde, Amit Noy, Keir Patrick, Rachel Poirier, Ellie Poirier-Dolan, Connor Scott, David Six, James Southward, Latisha Sparks, Carys Staton |
| Set design: | Sabine Dargent |
| Lighting design: | Adam Silverman |
| Costumes design: | Hyemi Shin |
| Live sound design: | Sandra Ní Mhathúna |
| Original sound design: | Helen Atkinson |
| Additional sound design: | Romain Bly, Jelle Roozenburg |
| Music coordinator: | Romain Bly |
| Tour rehearsal direction: | Mani Obeya |
| Production: | Dawn Prentice |
| General management: | Áine Ní Éalaí |
| Production management: | Michael Lonergan |
| Stage manager: | Marina Dunford |
| Deputy stage manager: | Sinéad Cormack |
| Assistant stage manager: | Iain Synnott |
| Technical stage manager: | Danny Hones |
| Costume management: | Amanda Donovan |
| Sound technicians: | Daragh Murphy, Ber Quinn |
| Lighting management: | Dónal McNinch |
| Co-produced by: | Dublin Theatre Festival, Sadler's Wells (London), New Zealand Festival of the Arts |
| With the support of: | NASC & Nomad touring networks |
| International touring supported by: | Culture Ireland |
| Production funded by: | Open Call award, the Arts Council of Ireland |
| In collaboration with: | Fondazione Teatro La Fenice |
Dance
Michael Keegan-Dolan - MÁM
Description
The choreographer and director Michael Keegan-Dolan and the concertina virtuoso Cormac Begley are two of the 8756 inhabitants of Kerry Gaeltacht, one of the seven counties where the Irish culture and language remain vibrant. In 2019, the two met in the studios of Keegan Dolan’s company, Teaċ Daṁsa – literally “the place where dance happens” – with the idea of doing something together.
Out of this came MÁM, a project steeped in the surrounding landscape and reality. Begley attended the entire process of creation, shaping his score around the movements of the dancers, who in turn adapted their bodies to the sound of the concertina. The result is a collective work, guided by a vision.
MÁM, which in Gaelic means “mountain pass”, seeks its imagery on the slopes of the Cnoc Bhréanainn, the sacred mountain of Kerry Gaeltacht that Keegan-Dolan imagines to be an entrance portal into the unknown, the magical, the wonderful. The atmosphere and traditions of the ancient Gaelic village of Kerry Gaeltacht come alive on stage. Keegan-Dolan’s dancers always appear in the twin roles of performer and spectator together with Cormac Begley with his concertina and the Berlin-based ensemble s t a r g a z e, which roots its jazz sounds in the colours and rhythms of Irish folklore. Music and dance, MÁM is everything that exists beyond the enchanted mountain, a place in which the ancient and the modern, the local and the universal come together.
Nominated for an Olivier Award for best production in 2020, MÁM joins the list of nominations that Michael Keegan Dolan has collected since his debut in the late 1990s, when he founded Fabulous Beast, then Teaċ Daṁsa. An associated artist at the Barbican Centre and currently at Sadler’s Wells in London, Keegan Dolan won a Bessie Award for Rian in 2013.