MARIS HAYES & FRANCK BOULÈGUE
Festival Directors / Filmmaker
are to the forefront in theory and practise within the growing field of European dance and film; they hold influential positions, as directors of Festival International de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne, France. Franck has a Masters in film studies from La Sorbonne – Université de Paris. He is a Filmmaker, Editor and Producer of more than 12 films that have toured Europe, Asia, North and South America. Marisa has a Masters of Arts and Letters, Visual Studies, specialising in Screendance, and is editor-in-chief of Repères, cahier de danse -- a dance research journal published by La Briqueterie, CDC (Choreographic Development Center) in Paris. Franck and she are PhD candidates, and have just signed a three year cooperation agreement with la Briqueterie to promote Screendance via screenings, round tables, and production residencies. Wicklow Screendance Laboratory are proud to welcome them to be part of this first Symposium, we hope it will be the first of many visits.
BLAS PAYRI
Festival Director / Filmmaker
Blas's interests include Music Perception; Sound Design; Film Music; Screen-dance; Music and Sound Technology; Music and Sonic Art Composition
Acreditación a Catedrático de Universidad (ANECA) 3 sexenios (tramos de investigación) active (CNEAI)
Professor (Profesor Titular de Universidad)
Assistant Professor (Profesor Contratado Doctor)
DCADHA, Dept. of Audiovisual Communication,
Universitat Politécnica de València (Spain) www.upv.es
Teaching activities: Music Perception and Experimental Design (Master’s in Music); Sound
Design, Music and Sound Effects for Film, Analysis of Sound in Film (Master’s in Digital Postproduction)
Former teaching: Film Parameters Analysis, Radio Production, Fiction Products Making, Creative Sound Design (Degree in Audiovisual Communication)
Technical Consultant
Akamai Technologies (Madrid Headquarters) www.akamai.com
Consulting, design and implementation of content delivery network solutions for major companies.
Team coordination and training.
Post-doctoral Visiting Researcher
VoiceLab, UCLA, University of California at Los Angeles (USA) Voice timbre analysis-by-modification (glottic models)
Lecturer
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Fontenay (France) Teaching activities: Computational Corpus Linguistics
Teaching Assistant (part-time)
Institut Universitaire de Technologie, Université Paris-Sud (France) Information Technology Project Development, Algorithms and Programming
KAREN GLEESON
Dancer / Filmmaker
attended Inchicore College of Further Education where she received her Royal Academy of Dance Teaching Certificate for Classical Ballet (2005). She has an honours degree in Modern Dance and Physical Theatre from Fonty’s Dance Academy, Netherlands and Koninklijk Conservatorium, Belgium (2009) and a Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance from UL (2010). She has danced with many Irish companies, presented her own work, and is current Dance Artist in Residence at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray.
EIMEAR BYRNE
Dancer / Filmmaker
graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Dance, (2009) and has a First Class Honours Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance from the University of Limerick (2016). She is part of the The Live Archive Exhibition, which will tour nationally to Dublin, Limerick and Cork this year. She is a Contemporary Dance Tutor on the full time dance course at the Bray Institute of Further Education and also teaches Intermediate Contemporary Dance classes and summer intensives at The Center for Dance at Dance Theatre of Ireland. As a performer she has danced for many Irish and international dance companies; she also creates her own dance for film works.
BIANCA PAIGE SMITH
Choreographer / Producer / Dancer
Bianca Paige Smith (BS Neuroscience, MA Contemporary Dance Performance), from NJ, USA, is a multi-disciplinary artist, a visionary and creator. She currently creates work that draws from principles of post-modern Contemporary dance, personal experience with yoga and meditation, as well as her background in neuroscience. Bianca is a Yoga Alliance certified Yoga instructor and has been developing a series of meditation services called Meditation for You. Her weekly teaching practice has included teaching Mindful Movement & Meditation at Gibney Dance as well as serving as a resource for wellness through yoga and meditation for the arts community and dance artists specifically and developing the movement practice of Two Can Do, an award-winning post-dance duet.
STEVE WOODS
Filmmaker
has worked in film since 1988. His work encompasses animations, documentaries, experimental films and to date six dance films. Steve is also a producer of short films and has directed many workshops in Ireland and aboard. He teaches Experimental Animation at the National Film School in IADT, Ireland. Steve has also curated for a number of Irish and international film festivals most notably he programmed 5 screenings of Irish animation at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2012.
Steve is on the board of the Galway Film Fleadh and the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland.
TARA BRANDEL
Dancer / Filmmaker
West Cork native Tara Brandel has been Artistic Director of Croí Glan Integrated Dance Company based in Cork, since 2006. She completed a two-year dance residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre 2015-16, which included a retrospective exhibition of 25 years of her choreography, and her short dance film CAR was Director's Choice at the Contact Dance International Film Festival in Toronto 2017. Most recently Tara has toured Cappaghglass, a one woman show about migration, to Cork Midsummer Festival, D-CAF Cairo Egypt, Echo Echo Derry, San Francisco FRESH Festival, and Ponderosa, Germany. Tara was awarded a Provost Fellowship to do an MFA in Choreography at UC Davis, where she's worked with documentary filmmakers Branwen Okapako and Julie Wyman.
EMMA FITZGERALD
Dancer / Writer
is a performer and choreographer whose work combines story-telling, dance and song. In 2008 she co-founded the dance theatre company ‘Fitzgerald and Stapleton’ with artist Aine Stapleton. She has created five full-length works and a number of shorter duets and solos. Her work has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Dance Ireland, Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council and by key theatres in Ireland; Project Arts Centre, Firkin Crane, Ballina Arts Centre and New York; Chocolate Factory Theater, Abrons Arts Center and Center for Performance Research. Fitzgerald trained at London Contemporary Dance School, one of Europe’s leading conservatoires and graduated with a BA Honours in Contemporary Dance.
RÓISÍN WHELAN
Dancer / Choreographer / Filmmaker
just finished working with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures on their UK tour of Romeo and Juliet and has now joined their Education team as a Trainee Dance Artist. Róisín credits her early training to Aedeen O’Hagan, Adele Mealey, and Anica Louw. She spent a year at Inchicore College for Further Education and worked with Dublin Youth Dance Company. During this time she also worked with Adrienne Brown on her film ‘I see his blood'. Following her early training. Róisín completed her Bachelor of Performing Arts degree in the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and was awarded the Kathleen Tattersall Leadership award. In 2019 she completed her Masters in Performance with the NSCD where she was awarded a first-class degree. Upon graduation she joined Black Box Dance Company in Denmark as an apprentice dancer and toured Denmark and Sweden prior to working with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures in the UK.
Róisín was chosen for the Emerging Choreographers Platform (Dublin) in 2018 and was also shortlisted as one of five to be Matthew Bourne’s Young Associate Choreographer. She most recently performed her own work ‘I see Light’ co-choreographed with Tommy Cattin in the Musikteatret Holstebro, Denmark for their five year anniversary concert. Róisín is now working with mentor Liz Roche to create a new piece of work which will be premiered in January 2020 alongside upcoming lighting designer Stephen Bourke.
JASMINE MORAND
Choreographer / Filmmaker
Born in 1977 in Zurich, Jasmine Morand completed her classical training in Geneva and at the Princess Grace Academy in Monaco, after winning first prize at the Swiss National Competition for classical dance in Solothurn and modern dance in Nyon. She began her dancing career at the National Ballet of Nancy and Lorraine, before joining the Zurich Opera under the direction of Heinz Spoerli and the National Ballet of Slovenia. In 2000, she began training in contemporary dance in Codarts, Rotterdam, where she began to develop her choreographic work. On returning to Switzerland, she founded the company Prototype Status.
AOIFE KAVANAGH
Composer / Filmmaker
is an Irish composer and musician currently based in Toronto. Growing up in Carlow, she was active in the small town’s vibrant creative scene before going on to study
music at third level. She holds a BA International in Music and German from Maynooth University and recently completed an MPhil in Music Composition at Trinity College Dublin. She taught piano and music theory at several music schools in Dublin and Carlow and directed the Trinity College choir ‘Diverse Voices’, before moving to Canada in September 2019 to live and work.
Aoife has a background in contemporary dance and ballet, and this experience has led her to working with dancers and other artists on a variety of collaborative, interdisciplinary projects. Examples include 'Post-Dance', a performance-art/dance piece premiered in the Project Arts Centre in August 2019, and 'This//Place//Meant', a piece for the Dublin Youth Dance Company's collaboration with Rise Youth Dance (UK) in Spring 2019.
ANGIE SMALIS
Dancer / Choreographer / Filmmaker
studied contemporary dance and choreography at the State School of Dance in her native Greece before joining the Viennese Folk Opera (Volks Oper Wien) in 2001. She relocated to Limerick in 2003 to work as a dance artist with Daghdha Dance Company. In addition to working as an independent contemporary dance artist, Angie is Artistic Director of Limerick Youth Theatre and Director of Patterns Dance Collective, a group of dance artists with intellectual disabilities, under the auspices of the Daughters of Charity Service, Limerick. Angie has received funding for her own work from the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, the Mid-West Regional Authority and Limerick City and County Council. Lately, Angie received the Arts Grant Funding- Arts Council- to research and develop “The Ambassadors” in collaboration with American performing artist Colin Gee, Irish dance artists Mark Carberry and Lisa Mcloughlin and American composer/vocalist Erin Gee.
Angie's projects, over the last six years, have been rooted in rigorous historical research surrounding an event, place, people, and cultural moment. The works that emerge from this research are developed in conversation with artistic collaborators, drawing new contemporary relevance from the historical material. Angie is particularly interested in moral relevance and what she considers as the development of a critical cultural imagination.
ERICA BORGES
Dancer / Choreographer / Filmmaker
Artistic Director, Dance Teacher and Choreographer, is the founder of Laois Dance Platform, showcasing national & international dance works. She is co-director of Lisbon Dance Platform in collaboration with Amalgama Dance Company (Lisbon), and was nominated in 2018 by Dance UK for ‘Inspirational Community Dance Practitioner Award’. Her dance pieces, films and visual works have toured to France and Portugal. Since 2018 she has been collaborating with Amalgama Dance Company developing the festival that she established in Ireland, to expand the vision to Lisbon, Portugal.
JEAN-BAPTISTE FERRERIA
Dancer / Choreographer
trained in the Martha Graham School (New York) where he studied with former lead dancers of the Martha Graham Company such as Denise Vale, Peggy Lyman, Jacquelyn Buglisi, Steve Rooks and Virginie Mécène. As a member of Graham 2 (formerly Martha Graham Dance Ensemble), he performed in various Graham works, including Diversion of Angels, Maple Leaf Rag, Acts of Light, Plain of Prayers, Canticle for Innocent Comedians, Celebration, Secular Games, Rite of Spring, El Penitente, Appalachian Spring, Dark Meadow and Embattled Garden. He is a member of the European Graham teachers’ network and Graham heritage promoting collective « Graham for Europe ».
RAFAEL MOLINA
Dancer / Academic
Trained at the Conservatoire National de Région of Saint-Etienne, Rafael Molino studied classical and contemporary dance there and worked with companies in residence, including the Ballet Malandain. At the Saint-Chamond National Dance Competition, he was awarded 1st accessit in 1998 and the gold medal in 1999, jury under the direction of Alain Davesne of the Paris Opera. A Sciences Po Paris graduate with a research master's degree in political theory in 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Fulbright scholarship from the US government in 2012 to study the Graham technique in his New York cradle. In 2013, he joined the young ballet of the Martha Graham school (Graham 2) and danced the repertoire. Back in France, Rafael continued his career as an interpreter and worked as an assistant choreographer for the IFunamboli Company. He regularly teaches the Graham technique at the Harmonic studio and at the Rick Odums Training Institute in Paris. In 2017, he founded Graham for Europe, an organization based in Paris that promotes the teaching of the Graham technique, connecting European professionals through master classes, meetings, conferences and exchanges with New York.
LISA TIGHE
Dancer / Filmmaker
trained at Inchicore College of Further Education and graduated with RAD Teaching Certificate in Classical Ballet (2006) and ISTD Diploma in Dance Education Modern Dance (2007). She graduated with a BA Degree in Dance Theatre from TrinityLaban conservatoire of Music and Dance (2010). As a dancer, Lisa has peformed with choreographers and companies both in Ireland and abroad; her dance films have been specially selected and shown at LightMoves festival of Screendance.
DR FINOLA CRONIN
Academic
is Head of Drama Studies at UCD. She studied dance in Dublin and at the London School of Contemporary Dance. She performed in Germany with Vivienne Newport (Frankfurt) and Pina Bausch (Wuppertal) and most recently with Raimund Hoghe (Germany/France). She teaches choreography, and drama & performance studies at UCD, and is director of the UCD/GSA MA in Theatre Practice. With Eamonn Jordan she edited The Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance Studies Reader Dublin: Carysfort Press (2016) (available online).
WEST PATRICK CONNELLY
Academic
has been engaged in story design, producing and direction since 1994 – devising hybrid art installations of film, theatre and animation: A Foreign Affair, A Beautiful Knightmare and Hamlet's Memory Palace. He studied Design Communication for Animation at the National Film School IADT, Film Production Management at the Media Business School in Ronda, Spain and 3D Art Direction at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. In 2013, West was awarded a Masters in Digital Feature Film Production from Staffordshire University and is currently engaged in practice-led PhD research – Defining a Place to Practice Digital Direction – at the Arts Technology Research Lab, Trinity College Dublin.
JESS ROWELL
Freelance Dance Artist
Jess Rowell is a freelance dance artist and yoga teacher based in Wicklow, Ireland. She has a specialism in working with children, young people and artists with intellectual disabilities. As Draíocht’s Dance Artist in Residence 2020 Rowell found new and innovative ways of working throughout the year. She facilitated an online project 'Chance to Dance' engaging members of Create Dance, Draiocht’s dance programme for young people with additional needs and invited guest dancers from Traces Dance Ensemble, Co. Waterford. She also created a new collaborative dance work for film 'Between Us There Is...' which will appear along with 'Chance to Dance' in Wicklow Screendance Laboratory 2021. The film features Jess Rowell with dancer Brian McSweeney, captured by Conor Donelan with an original sound score written by composer Stefan French.
In early 2020 Rowell also choreographed and performed in a music video directed by Stevie Russell for UK artist DirtyBlond.