UCC Creative presentation: Helga Deasy

Through The Valley She Runs is a dance and live music performance in The Glen River Park by choreographer/dance artist Helga Deasy in collaboration with dance artist Sara Hernandez and singer/musician Susan McManamon. Helga was recently awarded the UCC Creative Dance / Theatre Artist Commission 2024, and this work is the result of the commission.

The piece will be performed in the Glen River Park in Cork on Saturday 28th September at 6.15pm, and is part of a larger event celebrating the recent work of Gleann a'Phúca with artists and communities at the park - more info on Gleann a'Phúca here.  

The work is also informed by insights on river ecology and the impact of pollution on aquatic environments through a collaboration with aquatic ecologist Dr Neil Coughlan, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.

Through the Valley She Runs explores the relationship between imagination and riverscape sensitively drawing attention to the Glen River as a source of life, healing and regeneration. In a co-creative process with the river, the artists respond to the natural environment of the Glen, interweaving movement and sound in a meandering dance which follows the river, its energy and flow. It explores how a practice of dance, sound and embodied awareness can create new ways of knowing and bring about perceptual transformation in how we relate to and connect with the natural world.

This commission also builds on UCC Creative’s commitment to innovative Artist - Science collaborations. In 2022 / 23 UCC Creative partnered with UCC’s Environmental Research Institute to pilot two Dance Artist / Plant Scientist residencies in collaboration with the Crespo Foundation & Dance Cork Firkin Crane. This led to collaborative choreographic / scientific enquiries between Dance Artist Gráinne O’Carroll and UCC Plant Scientist Rossanna Henriques, and Dance Artist Isabella Oberländer and UCC Plant Scientist Eoin Lettice at Glenkeen Gardens in West Cork.

How to attend the performance

Please meet at the Yin and Yang statue in The Glen River Park at 6:15pm on Saturday 28 September, where you will be guided to the performance location.

You can find more information on Through the Valley She Runs and other events happening on the day here >>>

Find directions to the performance location here.

About the Artists

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. A recipient of multiple awards, Helga has created a body of work for stage and film presented nationally and internationally. 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 practitioner with Graffiti Theatre Company. Helga was Dance Artist in Residence at Dance Cork Firkin Crane 2021-23.
www.helgadeasydance.com

Sara Hernández is a Dance Artist based in Cork. She studied at the conservatory of dance “Institut del Teatre” in Barcelona and danced with Ballet Biarritz Junior and Cienfuegos Danza in Spain. She has been collaborating with Helga Deasy Choreographer since 2016 on the pieces, Helica, River Fragments, State of Flux, Cura and Built on Bridges. Sara has presented work at Cork Midsummer Festival 2017 and Skibbereen Dance Festival 2018. She has created and performed commissioned works for: The Cork Butter Museum in 2019 and 2021, Cork County Council, Macroom 2021 and for Faoin Speir- In the Open programme, Cork 2022.

Susan McManamon is a choral music director working in participatory projects in the community since 2014. She completed her MA in Ethnomusicology at UCC in 2015 with first class hons researching methods of empowerment in group music programs for disadvantaged girls with the Hope Foundation in India. In 2019 and 2021, Susan worked with Helga as MusicAlive Artists in Residence on ‘Creative Enquiry: Arts and Older People’. She was artist for Museum of Song: Ireland and Ukraine 2022 and 2023, a project connecting Ukranian and local communities through song sharing. She is director of The Ferns, a West Cork collective exploring the joy of folk, traditional and original songs using acapella harmonies. Susan received the Arts Council Agility Award in 2023 and 2024.