Ciseach: An Embodied Manifesto by Catherine Young Dance

In Association with Backstage Theatre

We are in shambles.

Ciseach* is a pulsating contemporary incantation weaving together a tapestry of dance, rhythm, live music and voice that seeks to rekindle our broken relationship with the land. Ciseach looks to the body, to the collective, in search of a new path as the ground beneath us yields. This stirring work by Catherine Young Dance is an embodied manifesto – urging us to re-member, to re-connect with our past, with nature and with each other. Collecting fragments of native wisdoms, myths and kinships, the work pieces together possible futures to build the wattled causeway, the ciseach to guide us to solid ground.

Like Floating on a Dead Sea and State of Exception, Ciseach takes on the challenging stories of our time to deliver a thought-provoking experience that echoes long after the curtain draws.

*Ciseach is an Irish word with multiple meanings. It means a shambles (where we are today) and it also means wattled walkway, a means to cross difficult terrain, soft ground or a bogland.

Catherine Young Dance is a company renowned for its physicality, musicality and the scale of its work. It holds a deep commitment to building community, to social justice and to working through dance to communicate vital stories and ideas, especially from those on the margins. CYD has toured nationally and internationally, notably Floating on a Dead Sea (2024), A Call to You (2023) and Ultima Thule (2016).

Contains sudden loud noise

Director and choreographer Catherine Young
created in collaboration with:
Dramaturg Hanna Slättne
Music Director Martin Schärer
Dance Collaborators Nana-YAA Appiah, Diarmuid Armstrong Mayock, Valentin
Lemaitre, Emily Nicolaou, Simone O’Toole, Carmen Palacios Sáenz
Original music created in collaboration
Martin Schärer, Jess Kavanagh, Mícheál O’Dubhghaill, Fionn O’Neill, Jon Sanders
(2026 tour: Seanan Brennan)
Set design Sabine Dargent
Lighting design Sarah Jane Shiels
Costume design Cherie White
Sound and sound design Alan Kelly

Funded by The Arts Council’s Touring Award with support from Backstage Theatre & Kerry County Council. No trees were felled in the creation of this work and all set materials will be reused/upcycled.