Once upon a dance floor
‘Francis Footwork is about doing what you appreciate and remaining accurate to who you are…’ CoisCéim founder David Bolger introduces his most recent dance piece, currently taking part in at The Ark, Dublin.
Francis Footwork is my second display for young audiences.
My initial was The Wolf and Peter which went on to tour extensively – from Sligo to Sydney and back again all over again. I saw the influence that it had on young folks: the excitement and pleasure it introduced was contagious. I felt the need to build far more operate for youngsters. The thoughts for Francis Footwork started to germinate from the thought of: what the world would be like without the need of dancing and what would be the penalties?
An uplifting tale about obtaining the braveness to dance your personal dance began to just take condition. The story centres around Francis Footwork, a female who was born to dance – for her dancing is dreaming with her toes. Her kingdom is a dance floor. And in this kingdom, everyone dances. That is, right until dancing is banned when she and her buddies come together to make permit all to transfer to their individual tune.
The development interval not only concentrated on the story line but the improvement of the characters all would be captivated by, they could see by themselves in, motion by dancers that wowed and influenced. I like to layer my do the job so it can engage in to a 6-year-previous and with any luck , an 80-calendar year-aged.
To me it is crucial to aid dance to children as substantially as possible.
I was lucky with Francis Footwork to have several development options – to start with, via a week prolonged residency at Baboró Worldwide Arts Pageant for Small children (wherever the present went on to premiere) – and then at The Ark, functioning with the Children’s Council that direct to some in-progress growth to youths, each at The Ark’s Even now Loading Pageant and the afterwards as aspect of the last rehearsals in CoisCéim’s studio – wherever I was in a position to get direct responses. It is important to hear to youths. They are quite good and have a large amount to say in the world.
To me it is vital to aid dance to children as considerably as doable. Dancing is a pure emotion, will make you truly feel stronger, happier and is vastly significant for our development as older people. There is so much investigation just lately about the advantages of dance for most people. I assume it is very essential to allow for children to dance. It increases interaction skills and has only favourable positive aspects in every facet of our expanding bodies and life.
We have been to perform Francis Footwork two a long time in the past subsequent the 2019 output. Like a lot of – our 2020 strategies were being closed down owing to Covid-19. I thought that I would never get to perform on the present again and it was dropped permanently. So, my contentment and honour to have the opportunity to deliver it to the audiences – and finally make our debut at the Ark in 2022 is a joy. I am a few many years more mature and probably wiser considering the fact that the primary staging – so quite a few things inside the show appear to converse extra clearly now creating even more possibilities for young audiences to join to the a lot of elements of this generation.
There are a handful of messages in this creation that maintain truth of the matter for all, irrespective of age. For me, Francis Footwork is about doing what you adore and being accurate to who you are – and it is as a result of the coming together of the energetic music and outstanding dance carried out that we truly feel this.
Francis Footwork by David Bolger is at The Ark until eventually April 30th 2022 – discover out far more in this article.