At Echo Echo we are just beginning the first season of relative normality since 2019 and the autumn and early winter are looking very busy and exciting.
It feels like a relief to be in a slightly more predictable situation but also a big challenge to get some momentum going again, and to encourage people to attend and participate. It seems like many arts organisations have a similar experience.
Anyway, we’ve worked hard to put together a deep and inviting programme for the next few months. We hope we’ll see an enthusiastic attendance of people ready to move and be moved.
Performance Programme
The performance programme begins this weekend, Saturday10th/ Sunday 11th September with “The Other Selves” by Benno Voorham.
Benno was artist in residence at Echo Echo Studios in March 2020 when the Covid19 epidemic took off. He was just finishing the creation of “The Other Selves” and was supposed to have the full premiere performance on the 14th March. Unfortunately, in the event, he performed to an audience of five, masked, socially distanced, Echo Echo colleagues. Not ideal!
Benno has been back with us since the beginning of September to finish the project properly and he will perform on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th at 8pm. We’ve decided to make these performances free. We want to invite everyone back in to Echo Echo Studios to help us to re-energise the space and to remember the joy and beauty of the space and the things that happen there.
Benno is a wonderful artist and performer with huge experience. He’s been a close collaborator with Echo Echo since the 1990’s and has been to Derry several times to share his work. “The Other Selves” is a poetic and touching multimedia work that looks at the vulnerabilities and fears that come with ageing. Benno’s dancing is mature, sensitive, detailed and his use of projection and music beautifully judged.
!!! It’s FREE! Please come along !!!
You can just turn up at the door. There should be plenty of space, but if possible, it would be helpful to let us know you are coming and with how many people. Send an email to info@echoechodance.com or give us a call on +44 28 71308883.
Echo Echo Festival Presents Tradition and Beyond
https://www.echoechodance.com/festival/programme-2022
Next week, 14th – 18th September, we present “Tradition and Beyond” a short festival of dance and music by artists rooted in the Irish Dance and Music tradition and extending it in various ways. In collaboration with our partners Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. We have artists in residence, performances, workshops a concert and a discussion “round-table”. It is such a full programme with wonderful dancers and musicians from all over Ireland as well as locals. It also includes the an exhibition of landscape paintings, by Donegal based artists, curated by Echo Echo’s new Associate Artist, Sinead Smyth. There isn’t room here to introduce everyone involved but full details are on the Echo Echo website.
https://www.echoechodance.com/festival/programme-2022
Later in the season we have more wonderful shows.
Zoe and Tonya
On Culture Night, 23rd September, Zoe Ramsey and Tonya Sheina will do multiple performances, at Echo Echo Studios of a new, typically humorous, duet “… And We All Join In”.
PORTS (SOLD OUT)
We have the fantastic Derry band PORTS playing two concerts at Echo Echo Studios on 31st Sept and 1st October but it is, unsurprisingly, already SOLD OUT. We are really happy about that and maybe they’ll come again soon. Please don’t just turn up on the night as we have strict limited numbers because of fire safety etc. If any tickets become available we’ll make it known.
Mel Bradley – For The Love Of Mary
On October 6th Echo Echo friend and collaborator, Mel Bradley presents “For The Love of Mary” a one-woman show mapping a personal fascination with the Virgin Mary and her lost humanity, rediscovered in the stories shared by women living in Ireland.
HALLOWEEN
For Halloween we have a blood chilling sensory experience, “The Experiment”, created by light/sound artist Barry Davis and the Echo Echo Ensemble.
Don Vappie Jazz Créole live in concert
On 12th November, we are collaborating with our colleagues at The Playhouse to host this fantastic concert by the Don Vappie and Jazz Creole quartet.
YASMIN MELLO – Marbleface
In late November Yasmin Mello returns to Echo Echo to complete and perform her solo piece “Marbleface” which we supported in it’s early development phase.
Solo shows at Echo Echo Studios and on tour
In early December both Echo Echo Artistic Director, Steve Batts and Associate Artistic Director, Ayesha Mailey will re-mount solo works, “How To Watch Dancing” and “The Poetics of Counterpoint” before taking them on tour to the “Going Solo Together” festival in Örebro, Sweden.
A BOX
For the Christmas season Zoe and Tonya will be remounting a “special festive edition” of “A BOX” the wonderfully funny and warm hearted clown-tango show that’s been successfully presented in Derry and on tour since 2016.
Classes at Echo Echo
We offer a wide range of classes at Echo Echo Studios. There are evening dance classes for adults (beginners as well as people with experience), the Body Wisdom Project for people over 50 years, Saturday kids dance classes. We are also happy to host and support our programme of classes by guest teachers – Singing Mamas led by Anna Nolan (for mums who want to sing in a baby friendly environment), Wing Tsjun; classes for kids and for women led by Karen Cassidy, First Act Youth Theatre(for younger and older groups) led by Mary Fitzpatrick and aerial circus classes by our friends at In Your Space Circus. Find all the details on the links above.
https://www.echoechodance.com/
Please come and join us for some of these wonderful events!
Steve Batts. Artistic Director. Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company.
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company 