Helga Deasy Residency

During her residency, Helga will investigate native Irish trees and their connection with ancient Celtic mythology and folklore through deep, active and engaged reciprocity between the human body and the natural world. In a co-creative process with nature, she seeks to explore the interrelationship between sensory perceptions, somatic experiences and imagination arising from the natural landscape. In the face of the climate emergency, her aim is to investigate how a practice of dance and embodied awareness can create new ways of knowing and bring about perceptual transformation in how we relate to and connect with nature.

Helga will collaborate with a multi-disciplinary creative team including dancers Sara Hernandez, Kanako Nakajima and Kevin Hayes, film maker Eoin O hAnnrachain, visual artist Claire Hurley and composer Justin Grounds. Further, she will collaborate with Dr Barbara Doyle Prestwich and Dr Eoin Lettice, joint co-leads of the UCC Arboretum research group. Through this investigation, Helga will develop her choreographic practice with a focus on site-specific work and the natural world under the mentorship of renowned choreographer Rosemary Lee.

This work is kindly supported by an Arts Council Dance Bursary.

Helga Deasy (Ireland/Germany) is a choreographer, dance artist and dance facilitator. Exploring themes of identity, belonging, migration and care through the immediate expressive potential of the moving body, her practice encompasses performance making, cross-disciplinary collaboration and socially engaged dance. It is grounded in choreological studies and her research into somatic practices and empowerment. Supported by the Arts Council, Cork City and County Councils and Culture Ireland, she has created a body of work presented nationally and internationally including dance ensemble performance productions, choreography for theatre and site-specific works with a socially engaged focus. Helga was Dance Artist in Residence at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre 2017-2018 and at Dance Cork Firkin Crane 2021-2023. She feels passionate about the transformative potential of dance and works in arts and health settings, is a lead-facilitator on the Teacher Artist Partnership Programme and an early-years arts practitioner with Graffiti Theatre Company.

www.helgadeasydance.com

@helgadeasydance