LIGHT Moves returns to the city from November 9-12. Dance Limerick’s annual festival is now in its seventh iteration and features over thirty film screenings, performances, talks, workshops and exhibitions.
This year’s festival has exploration and playfulness at its core, and is a thrilling presentation of the richness and diversity of work in Ireland and across the globe.
Light Moves hosts seven live performances including Alternately Terrific and Gentle by Liz Roche Company, Loop’n’Groove: Micro-choreographies of the Past by composer Barbara Ellison, and Spiral: In The City featuring dance and music duos, as well as an exhibition of screendance works at Limerick City Gallery of Art until January 2024, film screenings, workshops, talks and presentations, and much more to discover.
One of many highlights is ‘Alternately Terrific and Gentle’ which plays at Belltable twice on Friday November 10. (6pm & 8pm). This began as an ensemble piece by three top choreographers/performers, namely Jodi Melnick (New York), Liz Roche (Dublin) and Jenny Roche (Limerick) which evolved through collaboration in lockdown.
This piece then ventured further with a series of filmed responses from nine extraordinary choreographers, performers and artists across the world. It now takes tangible form as a performance/film installation at Limerick’s Light Moves Festival.
The work takes its title from a love letter from composer John Cage to choreographer Merce Cunningham, where he vividly describes the tumultuous yet delicate intensity of a rainstorm as “alternately terrific and gentle”. Featuring the musings of Leonard Cohen, who imparts wisdom on the art of speaking poetry, the timeless verses of Bob Dylan’s protest anthem, “A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall,” and the work of visual artist, Dorothy Cross.
The response films rain down different ideas with interconnecting threads passing between the combined movement of the three to the group of extraordinary collaborating artists.
