Latest news with #Luail
Irish Times
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
‘Dublin is very multicultural, which I love. But there's also this weird energy in certain areas'
The love of dance brought Hamza Pirimo to Ireland last December. He grew up in a home that celebrated dance and music in Uganda, and his talents have seen him travel across Europe to study and perform. After hearing about a call for auditions for Luail , Ireland's national dance company, online, he decided to apply. 'Let me try my luck, apply and see what happens,' he says. He was picked to come for an audition in Brussels and got through to the next round. 'Meeting everyone, seeing how good everyone was and how welcoming everyone was, it felt really good.' His final audition was in Ireland and he secured a place in the company. READ MORE His love of dance started at the age of three. He grew up as a middle child of six, and dance and music were a big part of their upbringing, influenced by his parents, who were part of a traditional Ugandan dance troupe. Any time his parents met their friends, he and his siblings would entertain them by dancing, and they would often receive sweets or some pocket money for their performance. 'It was a very high point in our lives as kids. This is how I slowly got introduced to dance.' As he got older he took up rugby and football and lost his interest in dance, but he was reintroduced to it through hip-hop and contemporary styles. With the physical nature of rugby, he was often injured and couldn't dance. He had to make a choice. 'There's a way dance just made me feel as a teenager growing up. I had a lot of anger issues and I would let out all these emotions through movement. It just made me feel more relaxed and more calm. There are a lot of beautiful places and a lot of beautiful spaces that are welcoming everyone. This is really nice and really important also, especially for this generation 'Dance, as any other sport, you have to find a way to get inspiration, you have to go into different spaces. You have to not only be imaginary, but also very physical, so you have to take care of your body. I fell in love with the process and this is why I kept doing it. 'There's a way it just makes me feel whenever I dance. I feel out of space. I feel like I'm myself. I feel like I'm connecting, not only to myself, but also to my ancestors, in a way.' While dancing with Luail, Pirimo fuses different elements such as hip-hop and traditional Ugandan styles with contemporary dance. He also enjoys ballet. Pirimo recalls: 'We didn't have a lot of things growing up, but we had enough things as a family to be well off. We grew up in a very good community, very supportive.' As a youngster he wanted to be a footballer. 'I wanted to do my best and find a way to take care of my family. I think it [dance] kind of grew on me every day. So, the love of dancing brought me into doing it professionally.' [ 'At what point is it okay for a black person to be Irish?' Opens in new window ] At 19, he moved to Germany to volunteer on an exchange programme between European and African countries, to teach Ugandan traditional dance. He taught dance in a studio and taught students about Ugandan and African culture. He described moving across the world as 'challenging'. 'Being away from something you feel familiar with, especially your family and friends, was a bit difficult. But I was in a state of wanting to explore something new, to try to challenge myself.' When Covid-19 put the world into lockdown, he had time to figure out what he wanted to do next. After researching different scholarships, he picked a school in Bielefeld in Germany. He wrote to the school to explain that he was a Ugandan dancer, living in Germany, and was offered an audition and then a scholarship. In choosing to come to Dublin for work, he had to leave his partner and young daughter in Germany. 'They are my everything, my backbone. They are very special to me.' 'It's challenging because [my daughter] is growing very fast. I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to see them frequently. I know they miss me and I miss them as well. It's always special whenever I see them.' Hamza Pirimo: 'As an African, as a Ugandan, I just want to find my people' He moved to Dublin last December and since then has been settling into Irish life. He lives close to the Phoenix Park, which he enjoys. 'I think Dublin in general is very vibrant for me. It feels a lot like Kampala [the Ugandan capital]. Kampala is really vibrant, a lot of energy, there's a lot happening. There's also a sense of unfamiliarity that comes in at some point with me living here in Dublin. It's very multicultural, which I really love. But at the same time, there's also this weird energy from certain people or in certain areas. In general, I know people mean well.' Dublin's openness is one of his favourite things about the city, as he felt it was lacking where he lived previously in Germany. 'I take the bus to come to the city and the bus drivers are so friendly and the people you meet on the streets.' One thing that surprised him was the beauty of Dublin and Ireland. 'There are a lot of beautiful places and a lot of beautiful spaces that are welcoming everyone. This is really nice and really important also, especially for this generation. We need these spaces for people to feel like I belong and I can be myself when I get into these spaces.' So far he has visited Wexford, Cork and Belfast while touring with Luail's production of Chora with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. [ 'My grandmother sent me to boarding school to protect me. It was a much safer option' Opens in new window ] He hopes to do more travelling around Ireland. 'I'm really interested to see different places and experience the Irish culture.' He sees numerous similarities between Dublin and Uganda, such as how they both have a 'vibrant energy, are multicultural and are welcoming'. When asked about differences, he says, 'There are economic differences and system differences but no others come to mind.' Having only been here for about six months, he is still 'figuring things out'. 'I think for me, as an African, as a Ugandan, I just want to find my people. Find a group where I belong and then the rest can slowly happen from there, because being mostly alone is very difficult in a new place and trying to figure out things on your own.' Pirimo is working on Luail's next production, Reverb, which will be performed across Ireland, September 11th-October 10th. We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@ or tweet @newtotheparish
Irish Examiner
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Five For Your Radar: Hank Wedel, Wes Anderson, Listowel Writers...
Cinema: The Phoenician Scheme General release, Friday, May 23 We'll always make time for Wes Anderson though even his most ardent fans might agree his films have been too whimsical of late at expense of plot. His latest comes two years after Asteroid City and features an all-star cast headed by Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton, a breakout star/nepo baby — she's Kate Winslet's daughter. The bio: The story of a family and a family business. Comedy: DirtBirds: Girls World Tour Everyman, Cork, Friday, May 23 Sinead Culbert and Sue Collins are the Dirtbirds — 'real women, real issues, real funny'. After their last sell-out tour of Ireland and the UK, Girls World Tour mixes standup and sketches as they explore the female mind and ask: Why do we enter 1,000 calories into our Noom app when we've really consumed over 6,000? Why do we hold onto tights when they've ladders in them? Why do we keep buying creams that we know won't stop our faces from sliding down our necks? Dance: Chora Cork Opera House, Wednesday, May 28 National dance company Luail brings its inaugural performance, Chora, to Cork Opera House. New national dance company Luail presents its inaugural work, a triple bill of new dance works by choreographers Maria Campos and Guy Nader, Liz Roche, and Mufutau Yusuf, in collaboration with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. With set and costume design by Katie Davenport and lighting design by Sinéad McKenna, and featuring Cork composer Sam Perkin, Chora sees the dancers and musicians draw on their bodies, instruments, and ultimately, each other. Literary: Listowel Writers Week Various venues, From Thursday, May 29 Ireland's oldest literary and arts festival — it began in 1971 — returns over the June bank holiday weekend. Kicking off on Thursday, a literary and historical walking tour of the Kerry town takes place at 10am, playwright Jimmy Murphy hosts the John B Keane Memorial Lecture, while there are also events focused on poetry, short stories, history, and Athea Drama Group puts on the lyrical folk play Sharon's Grave. And that's just the first day of Writers Week! Music: Hank Wedel Speak To Me (with Princes Street and Carol Barrett Ford), Wednesday, May 28 A singer-songwriter born in the US and based in Cork city, Hank Wedel was 25 in 1988, when he returned after two years performing in New York. He formed Princes Street who released the mini-album The Night John Lynch Lost His Glasses in 1989. That long player featured the classic tune Speak to Me, a song which became a favourite at the band's numerous live shows during the era. Now the track is finally getting a digital release - it will be available on all streamers from Wednesday.
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Dublin Dance Festival 2025: At Chora, generations of choreographers, dancers and producers witness an auspicious debut
Chora Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin ★★★★☆ A notable slice of Irish dance history appears at the unveiling of Luail , the new national dance company, on Tuesday. Generations of choreographers, dancers and producers – including members of Irish National Ballet from the 1970s and 1980s, the last time Ireland had a full-time dance company – eagerly witness the opening night of Chora. Irish National Ballet's last production was Oscar, a ballet based on Oscar Wilde that it performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 1989. Picking up the baton 36 years later, Luail has partnered with the Irish Chamber Orchestra in three works, the orchestra energetically part of the movement fabric onstage rather than tucked away in the pit. [ Behind the scenes at Luail as Ireland's national dance company prepares to open Dublin Dance Festival Opens in new window ] As a full-time company Luail will be judged on its coherence, how it is more than just a collection of individuals thrown together for a production. Superficially that coherence can be measured by how razor-sharp the dancers move in unison. Liz Roche, the company's artistic director, resists the temptation of a slick, easy-to-digest premiere, instead bringing three dances that celebrate the intangible: the word 'chora', drawn from classical Greek philosophy, refers to an in-between space, not quite real, not quite abstract. In response the dancers coalesce not just in movement but with less discernible collective energy. The unison isn't just visual but visceral. READ MORE Set on risers at the back of the stage, the orchestra reach their most physical presence when performing Julia Wolfe's Dig Deep, accompanying Mufutau Yusuf's brooding Invocation. Continuing the choreographer's artistic path in exploring ritual and reconnection with the past, the black-clad dancers display physical intensity, individuals flinging arms as if casting off the past or swarming in groups loaded with uncertainty. Roche's Constellations is a quieter meditation on shared space and interaction. Dressed in teal, pale chartreuse and grey, the dancers walk on stage and pause when encountering one another, the gentle disruption either ignored or acknowledged, often with hugs or by holding hands and counterbalancing each other. These dissipate as quickly as they appear as the ever-changing energy in the space – supported by Sam Perkin's evolving score – becomes defined by the different encounters, whether one to one or collective dancing in a tight circle of light, like at a club. There's the same sense of mapped energies in I Contain Multitudes, by Guy Nader and Maria Campos, performed to the composer Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato. Here the bodies are more instrumental and interactions more Newtonian. Dancers are less people, more moving beings that interact through physics rather than emotional attraction. The music is similarly impersonal, with looping five-count phrases that drive the walking concentric circles into eddies of intense movement: individuals are held by an arm and leg and spun in circles, jessant bodies flung into the air and then caught by fellow dancers. Each interaction demands precision and, most importantly trust, both evident throughout. Chora is an auspicious beginning for Luail and its dancers, Jou-Hsin Chu, Conor Thomas Doherty, Clara Kerr, Sean Lammer, Tom O'Gorman, Hamza Pirimo, Rosie Stebbing and Meghan Stevens; plus guest dancers Glòria Ros, Sarah Cerneaux and Alexander De Vries. Alongside full-throttled playing from the musicians, Katie Davenport's staging and costumes and Sinéad McKenna's lighting design are understated but perfectly apposite, reflecting the evening's aesthetic self-confidence. Chora will be performed at National Opera House , Wexford, on Friday, May 16th; Lyric Theatre , Belfast, on Sunday, May 18th; and Cork Opera House , on Wednesday, May 28th
RTÉ News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Dublin Dance Festival celebrates 21st year
The 21st Dublin Dance Festival kicks off on Tuesday and as part of the celebrations, a new national all-island dance company will take to the stage for the first time. The 'Luail' dance company will present its debut show called 'Chora' in Dublin before hitting the road to bring the show to audiences across the country. "The countdown is on for our very first performance and we are in a whirl of rehearsals," artistic director Liz Roche said as last minute preparations took place in Dance House on Foley Street in the heart of Dublin city centre. Ms Roche went on to explain that "Luail is a national and all-island dance company that is supported by the Arts Council". "It's the first company of this nature in many, many years in Ireland, and our mission is for dance to be celebrated across the island," she said. Ms Roche explained that after many years in the build up to the launch of the company, they are very enthusiastic about the opportunity now "to increase visibility for dance for everybody". Confirmation of Luail's plans have been welcomed across the dance communities here. Professional dancers from Ireland said they have to travel abroad for their training and they assume that their long term careers will be spent on the road, away from home due to the shortage of work on stages here. Part of the significance of Luail is that it can now offer dancers, choreographers and the wider creative teams security and stability in a traditionally unpredictable career. "The possibility of having full-time employment here, which is something I didn't think was possible now is great." A contract to dance full-time on home stages is a welcome step forward for creative talent. For dancer and newly recruited member of the Luail company, Rosie Stebbing, this first production is significant. She says that "Luail for me and I think for loads of dancers in Ireland, it's like a really landmark thing, because we haven't had a full-time dance company in Ireland. "The possibility of having full-time employment here, which is something I didn't think was possible now is great." She adds that she had to travel to Europe to train and work and she is delighted to be able to be home and dancing full-time here now. Chora has been co-created by the acclaimed choreographers Guy Nader and Maria Campos and it will be first performed at the Bord Gáis Energy theatre on Tuesday night before heading out to stages nationwide. Mr Nader supports the roll out of a national dance company. He said: "We are workers so that stability is very important, not only economically but also it allows you to be stable emotionally and I think that is very important too." Luail is the launch event for the dance festival and the buzz across Dublin dance communities is building. The programme will host events from the 13th to the 25 May across a number of Dublin City venues and some of the highlights include Oona Doherty's return with 'Specky Clark', at The Abbey. This acclaimed show blends fiction and biography, where a young boy dances as if in a Francis Bacon painting. Somnole at the Project with Boris Charmatz is described as a dreamlike yet powerfully physical solo and Mosh from Rachel Ní Bhraonáin will be staged in the Space upstairs at the Project too and this show features loud music and smoke machines so be prepared. Back at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre meanwhile, there will be welcome return for Matthew Bourne's ground-breaking all-male version of Swan Lake. For artistic director Jazmin Elodi, the festival is the culmination of a year's work, as she travels internationally inviting the best of dance to Dublin. "People should come to this year's festival because we are celebrating 21 editions this year of the festival," she said. "We are full of amazing artists and performances coming from Nigeria, France, they're coming from the UK, and of course we have our Irish creative talent too at the heart of all this." The 21st Dublin Dance festival runs from Tuesday until 25 May.
RTÉ News
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Luail steps up - Ireland's national dance theatre takes flight
Liz Roche, Artistic Director of Luail, Ireland's all-island dance company, talks about the beginnings of the company, as it prepares to make its highly anticipated debut this May with Chora, a triple bill of new dance works. Luail takes its name from an ancient Irish word that evokes movement, energy, and impulse. Soft in sound—pronounced 'loo-il'—it also carries a deeper resonance, describing an internal, almost anatomical motion, much like the movement of the nervous system. We embrace these layered meanings, drawing from our rich culture to shape our vision: for dance to be known and celebrated across the island of Ireland and to strengthen our dance ecosystem. In 2024, the Arts Council Insights survey revealed that just 2% of the population attend dance performances. While dance participation is high in private or commercial settings, a lack of investment in dance education - unlike other art forms such as music and drama - has created social and spatial barriers. Without early exposure to dance, it's difficult to cultivate a life-long appreciation for the art form. Listen: RTÉ Arena celebrate the launch of Luail Additionally, those aspiring to have a career in dance have often faced a lack of clear pathways to support their journey. This gap in support was highlighted as a critical need by the Arts Council's Dance Policy—Advancing Dance 2022-2025, which called for the establishment of a national, all-island dance company to create stable careers for dance artists, present ambitious work, revive key repertoire, and strengthen connections across the dance community. Liz Roche Company and foundational partners at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick and Maiden Voyage Dance in Belfast, were awarded the opportunity and honour to create Luail — Ireland's National Dance Company. Together, we have been shaping this new national, all-island dance company, developing a programme of ambitious dance works and special projects that build on the incredible work already being done in the sector. Our artistic programme is forging strong connections between traditions, artists and communities, through the creation of bold, high-quality, collaborative works across various disciplines, scales, languages and performance spaces. Our work brings people together locally and internationally, driven by a fearless, inventive spirit, deep artist connection, and shared joy. The work celebrates the idea of shared spaces, both physical and emotional, and explores what they mean in our lives today. With our foundational partners we are establishing clear career pathways for dancers, and now for the first time, dancers on the island can follow a path from undergraduate to postgraduate studies in contemporary dance at the Irish World Academy, UL, into a professional national company through two MA dance placements with the Luail ensemble. After just over a year of building our new Luail team, company of dancers, and programme that has engaged with over 120 artists across disciplines through research & development and commissioning dance artists to create within and for their communities—we are now preparing to premiere our first major production for the stage. To be doing this at Bord Gais Energy Theatre as the opening performance of Dublin Dance Festival feels extra special. Chora, created in collaboration with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, is an ambitious debut featuring three new dance works: I Contain Multitudes by Maria Campos and Guy Nader, Constellations by myself, Liz Roche, and Invocation by Luail's Choreographer in Residence, Mufutau Yusuf. Chora takes inspiration from the ancient Greek word that describes a place for being that is a shared space - both real and imagined. This ground-breaking new work will see Luail's ensemble of extraordinary dancers join forces with the Irish Chamber Orchestra in a vibrant exchange of dance and live, contemporary orchestral works. The work celebrates the idea of shared spaces, both physical and emotional, and explores what they mean in our lives today. This theme runs through all of our productions in unique ways this year, and we are excited to see the many threads come together over time. Chora – along with the rest of our productions this year – is a work in dialogue with contemporary Ireland—work that celebrates our diverse culture, transcends language, and engages with complex societal themes. We hope that audiences see our inaugural production as more than just a showcase of movement – we see it as a conversation in motion, driving us toward a brighter, more connected future for dance. Together, we'll revel, rebel, and reimagine. Together, we'll move.
