From 22nd to 27th February 2021 Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company offers a series of online events under the title “ECHO ECHO FESTIVAL PRESENTS” as a covid19-adapted alternative to the normal festival format. The events include livestreamed solo performances, talks by artists who had been commissioned to present work at the festival, an online retrospective of images from past festivals, workshops and a chance to meet and question the Echo Echo team about our work. As Covid19 restrictions ease later in 2021 and into early 2022 the company will be programming the new works commissioned for the festival, also under the title “ECHO ECHO FESTIVAL PRESENTS”.
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company Artistic Director, Steve Batts writes:
We scheduled the dates for the 8th edition of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company’s Festival of Dance and Movement a long time before the Covid19 pandemic disrupted everyone’s plans. However, as it became clear that we couldn’t rely on conditions being in any way normal, we decided to change our plans to remain as flexible as possible to whatever situation might arise.
We really didn’t want to create a dance-film event or to present filmed versions of performances which really ought to be presented live so, with this in mind, we decided to build the festival around newly commissioned live work that would be as “Covid19 adaptable” as possible. To avoid any issues with travel restrictions, we put out an invitation to artists based on the island of Ireland to propose projects that would be as adaptable as possible but which retained a live performance element. The responses were imaginative and inspiring. Some people proposed tiny audiences, some proposed livestreamed work, some wanted to work outside despite the time of year, some wanted to incorporate social-distancing rules. We commissioned four artists from this process, Suzannah McCreight, Natasha Bourke, Katy Wilson and Zoe Ramsey.
While this process was going on Tara Brandel called me to say that her company, Croi Glan, had received support for a new solo, livestream, work featuring Linda Fearon and directed by Caroline Bowditch. She said that she had intended to apply for an Echo Echo Festival commission but was concerned that those should go to support artists who otherwise wouldn’t have resources, and would we like to present this new work without us having to commission it. This kind of creativity, adaptability, mutual support and generosity has been a feature of my professional experience throughout the past year.
So we ended up with five newly developing pieces by wonderful movement artists to schedule into our programme.
Then the turn of the year gradually brought the clear understanding that we would have to jettison all our planned live elements. With travel restrictions and work-place rules it became obvious that even a livestream from a private house, which needed a cross border trip and a technical crew in a small space, wasn’t going to be possible. We decided that the best idea was to create a series of online events under the heading “Echo Echo Festival Presents” and to save the live performances of the newly commissioned works for later in the year, when presenting them properly should become possible.
ONLINE TALKS
All of the artists whose work we had planned to present agreed to postpone their performances and each agreed to give an online talk during festival time, to give the opportunity for people to hear something about their ideas and concerns and a little about their creative processes and where they are at the moment with the work-in-progress. We hope these talks will whet the appetite for when we are in a position to present the performances properly.
LIVESTREAMED SOLOS
The programme also includes 5 livestreamed solo dances by artists from Echo Echo. These are modelled on the November Dances project that I undertook in late 2020. The format of short solo dances each evening proved very successful with well over 1000 log-ins from many parts of the globe, over the twenty one evenings. We decided to continue this format as a way to keep things live and to energise the connections between our local, regional, national and international audiences and colleagues. So, at 7pm each evening one of Zoe, Ayesha, Kelly, Tonya and myself will invite you to join the audience on zoom for a unique, one-off, solo performance designed for livestream.
WORKSHOPS
We are also presenting several online workshops, drawing on this year’s experience of how to make wonderful classes online. One workshop is for families, one for over fifties and one for anyone who want to explore phrasing in movement.
RETROSPECTIVE GALLERY
Our close collaborator, Simon Alleyne, who has been responsible for the photographic and video documentation the Echo Echo Festivals, is creating a retrospective exhibition selected from the beautiful images from the past seven editions. A version of this will be available as an online gallery between 22nd and 27th February. Later in the year we will mount the full exhibition of images in the lobby and gallery spaces at Echo Echo Studios.
OPEN TO QUESTIONS
Finally, on Saturday 27th Echo Echo is “open to questions”. All the staff and ensemble artists will be available online from 2pm – 4pm to answer (or at least try to answer) any questions you might have about the company. Maybe you are interested in the history, the idea of “Poetic Movement”, light and sound, collaboration, the organisational structure, funding, the experience of building a project slowly over decades outside a metropolitan centre, our views on art practice generally and dance in particular, the special challenges of the past year… or something else entirely. If you have a question, or just want to hear us respond to other people’s, then join us.
On reflection, The Echo Echo Festival of Dance and Movement is so fundamentally a live event with real presence and proximity that we can’t really think of this online,”Echo Echo Presents” week as the eighth edition of our festival. It feels like an in-between-time and that this is an in-between-event. It is a sort of “seven-and-a-halfth” festival.
Look out for programme details coming shortly on http://www.echoechodance.com and on social media!
Steve Batts Artistic Director
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company 