2019 Associate Artist
We are delighted to announce, and welcome, Áine Stapleton as Dance Ireland's tenth Associate Artist. The Associate Artist Programme began in 2012 to support the development of choreography in Ireland and complements our ongoing work of enabling dance artists through training and development opportunities, residencies and practical supports which progress the development of dance. With each Associate, we offer a suite of supports, including administrative support, studio space, advice and networking, in support of their self-directed projects.
'I am absolutely thrilled to be Associate Artist with Dance Ireland in 2019. It’s been such a pleasure to partner with Dance Ireland on various projects throughout the years, so I can only imagine the joy and inspiration that a year of full-time collaboration will bring. In 2019, I will research and produce a variety of choreographic projects in Ireland and abroad. I am very grateful to Dance Ireland for being my creative anchor, as well as my levante!
Over the next few months, I will finish creating my new dance film Horrible Creature. I’m honoured to be working with an amazing group of artists for this film, including dance artists Michelle Boulé, Sarah Ryan and Céline Larrère, voice-over artist Rebecca Warner, cinematographer Will Humphris, and sound artists David Best and Ed Chivers (Fujiya & Miyagi). Horrible Creature will premiere at the Irish Film Institute in June and in Switzerland during Winter 2019.
I will also be artist in residence at the NMAC Foundation in Andalucia, Spain. NMAC is an exhibition space situated on 30 hectares of Mediterranean pine grove, and features permanent works by international artists including Marina Abramovic and James Turrell. I will spend five months at NMAC researching in their outdoor environment, library, and video rooms, for a new dance project called alone as everything. I was introduced to the natural environment in Andalucia and NMAC three years ago, when I was an artist in residence at Bee Time Artist Residency. I fell in love with the energy of the area, and I’m looking forward to learning more from the land there, as well as creating further exchange between the artistic communities in southern Spain and Ireland.
I will share my research as a work-in-progress at DanceHouse and NMAC in the Autumn, and will also be offering movement workshops based on my research themes at both centres, throughout the year.'
Áine Stapleton is a dance artist. She creates choreography for both stage and screen, in partnership with arts organisations in Ireland and abroad. She has a 1st Class Honours Degree in Dance Studies from the University of Surrey, London. Áine is currently producing her second dance film based on Lucia Joyce, called Horrible Creature. It is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, with additional support from Arts and Disability Ireland, Dance Ireland, The James Joyce Centre Dublin, Fringe Lab at Dublin Fringe, the Ticino Film Commission in Locarno, Tanzarchiv Zurich, and The Irish Embassy in Bern, Switzerland.
Her first dance film Medicated Milk, was also based on Lucia Joyce. It was created with José Miguel Jiménez, and features an original sound score by Somadrone. “Brave, provocative and deeply sensual...A must see" Film Ireland.
She recently performed extracts from her work Queen of Vacation as part of ARTWORKS at Visual Carlow and Carlow Arts Festival, in June 2018. Queen of Vacation is inspired by natural beekeeping, permaculture, and systems thinking. The choreographic score for this work was recently included in a new publication called ‘Holon’, and as part of a conference exhibition ‘Learning from the Bees’ in the Netherlands.