This year we began a residency with Tipperary Dance at Nenagh Arts Centre. After 3 years we were still in the throws of coming to terms with ourselves, our life, our work, our collaboration, these days and our times. How best to spend our time? What happens when you go to Nenagh and listen, during a heatwave and living in an old Quaker house? Maria told me ‘Man, the Quakers! They just got together and shut up, that’s what they did’. She gave me a soft slap to mark the revelation and we laughed. We knew what we had to do. To find a way to be still in the noise of of Nenagh first, then the kingdom of Luxembourg.
Sound has been a kind of incubation for me, its a wave I feel the most and Im deeply sensitive to it. To listen in the place that has invited you as an artist; this is the honour and privilege of an arts residency. I’ve worked endlessly for over 15 years on my arts/life practice and I took this time and opportunity gratefully and with both hands.
I was equally intrigued to be in Tipperary and Luxembourg, both of which I learned, preserve royalty. In Nenagh we made the rare green space in the town our main site of excavation: The castle park and the walled lavender garden just behind the Arts Centre. Nenagh wasn’t an easy place to be and tragically the arts centre is almost completely invisible to the community. An arts centre employee told us that once someone asked a Garda in the station across the road for directions and he wasn’t sure where it was. There are statues of men playing sport and also a mural of a local musical hero. No women are honoured in this public way. I only came across 2 statues in Luxembourg, both were women. One of them a nun, the other their beloved Duchess Charlotte. She was exiled during WW2 and she sent encouraging broadcasts back to the people of Luxembourg through the BBC encouraging them to believe in their independence and freedom. Her other choices were to take her high seat and orders from Hitler or be sent to a concentration camp. Once in the tiny park in Nenagh by the castle, a classroom of 5th class girls stumbled on us improvising with a globe artichoke given to us by the lavender garden gardener. Giggles quickly turned to attention, we couldn’t have arranged such an encounter or performance. Their teachers sat them down right in front of us and we were all in the same world briefly, free and dancing. They applauded when we finished and waved when we left the park. Thank you Nenagh!
Ballet Barre was the only commitment we insisted upon ourselves in both towns, the heatwave made my aching body soft so I could go deeper into the practice. Ballet, Maria Nilsson Waller style mixed with some of my own ingredients, has been metamorphic for me, physically and beyond. I began my training at 40 and cried for most of the first 2 years in the sporadic sessions with Maria. It has given my body space, strength and hang, which reflects in me as I try to show up for myself everyday, developing equanimity in the chaotic river of aliveness. The body in collaboration with the imagination is an ongoing devotion and practice.
Both of these residencies were an opportunity to hold time loosely as we listened for how best to share, live and connect. We look to the same things no matter where we are: relationship and nature. Addiction was how the exploring began. We knew it was a broad starting point and we couldn’t have imagined the expansive nature of this until we had focused time and space. This work will take a couple of years before it takes shape.
Luxembourg was rivers, valleys, kingdoms, castles, otters, walled city, supportive engaged spaces, tree tops, squirrel choreography and acrobatics, a sense of an invisible underneath finished off with a spectacular William Kentridge exhibition at MUDAM that moved and inspired us all. It was a huge challenge travelling, and we are conscious of creating sustainable practice for the future. We’re grateful for these places and time in both Tipperary and Luxembourg, and for the expansion and connections made with people and places of residents and residency, the arts centres, homes and TDP. Now more than ever the creative landscape, both artists and administrators, could do with an injection of community, local and global. Together we move. The connections made feel important.
My formal education was in the revolutionary educational philosophy of the first female doctor in Europe. One of the most intense practices you have to learn in this training is the observation of the child. In my own work in progress process of maturing I look closely at how children are treated and how they behave, believing the secrets of humanity lie in these early years. So, I will leave you with this. Once in a park in Luxembourg a classroom of five 4 year olds fearlessly climbed a tree beside us. The fifth child stayed on the ground under the tree air fighting off enemies in a kind of war dance. As they were leaving, the 3 girls of the group were hand in hand like a mini chain. One of them spotted a water fountain and made a run for it pulling the whole group with her. The girl on the other side of the link pulled towards the teacher and exit and the girl in the middle held her ground while she took a quick moment to discern who to lean towards. She chose the direction of the teacher. All of these urges and outcome were spot on I thought. Get close to nature every chance you get.
FFP continues to be a river, a meeting of waters and devotion to truth, relationship, community, creation and the the art of life. Long live the arts! If you would like to keep up with us we’re at www.florafaunaproject.com + /florafaunaprjct
Stace Gill Flora / Fauna Project x
