TAKE OFF FESTIVAL 2026 PROGRAMME 1

Take Off Festival 2026 features two international choreographer's works, chosen from Aerowaves Twenty25 selected artists presented on Shared programmes. Programme 1 features works by Mufutau Yusuf, Ekin Tunçeli and Alex Vostokova.

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BENCH #5 PROSES ON NEITHER HERE NOR THERE Mufutau Yusuf

This work contemplates the fragility of human life and the quiet strength found in its impermanence. By using the body language of dance, it offers a meditative space to engage with notions of mortality with reflection and curiosity. It embraces themes of decay, transformation and renewal, inviting people to consider death, not as an end, but as a vital part of existence, as a cycle within the force of nature. Set against the backdrop of global unrest and personal reflection, the work is a meditation on how we live, what we leave behind and the legacy we shape.

Choreographer/Performer Mufutau Yusuf

Costume designer Maryam Yusuf

Music (Live Performance) Sergey Starostin's Vocal Family Travelling Tatars, Sainkho Inuit Wedding, Abbey Lincoln Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace

World Premiere - 10 July 2025, Georges Dock, Dublin

BENCH #5 Premiere Production Credits

Curator David Bolger

Filmmaker Luca Truffarelli

Production Manager Barbara Hughes

Technician Sarah Keane

Production Assistant Elizabeth Jannetta

Produced by Sarah Latty/Bridget Webster

HEARTQUAKE Ekin Tunçeli

How can you imagine a future while shakes constantly change what you dreamed of? In a land where people grow up hearing of ancient cities that have been destroyed by earthquakes, how can you built something when you know it will eventually be demolished? When everything keeps falling apart, what is left except each other's support and the endless effort of human beings?

The homeland of Sisyphus, tireless master of eternal toil, lies upon one of the most seismically active lands on earth

Choreography Ekin Tunçeli

Dancers Bariş Diker, Gizem Seçkin, Diren Ezgi Yildizkan

Sound, including tracks from various artists Ah! Kosmos, Ekin Tunçeli, Cucina Povera & Haron, Dinamarca

Supervision Jennifer Lacey, Stina Nyberg

Sound Supervision Bariş Bingöl

Costume Mert Yemenicoğlu

Light design M. Ali Dönmez

Supported by Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası and SKH

Ekin Tunçeli is an Aerowaves Twenty25 Artist

BENCH #6 PIT Alex Vostokova

Pit is about public space and the social, psychological, and ecological effects of modern urbanism. Set in an unspecified metropolis where concrete has purged all natural life, one defiant weed persists. The work blurs the lines between its fictional world and the reality of contemporary life, provoking audiences to reflect on the relationship between performance, power and pedestrian.

Choreographer/Performer Alex Vostokova

DJ Jack Colley

Additional Music Flying Columns by Local Gods

BENCH #5 & BENCH #6 World Premiere - 10 July 2025, Georges Dock, Dublin

BENCH Premiere Production Credits

Curator David Bolger

Filmmaker Luca Truffarelli

Production Manager Barbara Hughes

Technician Sarah Keane (BENCH #6) / Chris Nolan (BENCH #5)

Production Assistant Elizabeth Jannetta

Produced by Sarah Latty/Bridget Webster

BENCH #5 and BENCH #6 were commisioned by CoisCéim Dance Theatre (funded by The Arts Council) as part of BENCH, a collection of short original dance works, highlighting everyday spaces as creative places.

Mufuta Yusuf is a Nigerian-born Irish choreographer, performer, and teacher based in Ireland and Brussels. His acclaimed works Òwe and Impasse, have toured across Ireland, Europe, the US, and Nigeria. In 2025, Mufutau was elected to membership in Aosdána, a body which honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the Arts in Ireland. He has worked with artists and companies such as Vim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez, Liz Roche Company, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Emma Martin/United Fall. Mufutau is a resident choreographer with Luail, Ireland's National Dance Company and shares his practice through teaching and improvisation internationally.

Ekin Tunçeli is a multidisciplinary artist and choreographer who translates embodied experience into poetic, multilayered forms. Centering the body in her artistic research, she explores its expressive, political, and perceptive dimensions. Holding degrees in Medicine and in Contemporary Dance and Choreography, she combines analytical precision with creative intuition. Her solo bir şey was selected for Aerowaves Twenty20, and her latest work heartquake is was selected for Aerowaves Twenty25.

Alex Vostokova is a dance artist, choreographer and director working across live performance, improvisation and film as well as teaching and facitlitating in Ireland. An associate artist at Dance Limerick in 2024-2025, they have been supported by The Arts Council and Dance Ireland. Alex explores how our environment impacts identity, with a focus on socio-cultural issues, surrealism, and the intersection of dance and other mediums. Their work invites curiosity about dance as a resilient art form as well as movement that isn't 'perfect' but rather emphasising that it is such a communal practice.