Lucia Kickham’s Residency at Tanztendenz in November 2022 is an opportunity to develop SOLO-ing, the work she presented as part of Tipperary Dance International Festival in 2021. The project was a result of research undertaken on two residency periods supported by Tipperary Dance, Nenagh Arts Centre and Grand Studio Brussels.

“I am a dance performer and maker trained in the Netherlands, based in Ireland. As a performer I work with a number of companies and independent choreographers. This supports my physical explorations, informs my own process as a dance maker and provides opportunities to observe an array of communication styles and creative approaches. In 2021, I was awarded Next Generation funding from the Arts Council of Ireland to receive coaching from Australian dance artist Rosalind Crisp. I had sessions with her via Zoom last year and will have further coaching in 2022. These have and will continue to deepen my approach to improvisation for performance. Improvised performance can be a slightly terrifying thing at times but I find this challenge, the pursuit to fully embrace this idea of trust in the body and listening to it, very rewarding.

My work tends to be more about process than production. I want to share the sense of doing and finding rather than the polished and prescribed. My 2019 Dublin Fringe show, INIT:The Warm Up Project looked at preparation and availability, moving from solo needs to collective cooperation. In my practice, I aim to create a state of exploration, of play and honesty. The phrase ‘powerful softness’ is one that I began using last year while creating in the pandemic conditions. How can I move forward with more ease while still having strong, clear intention, removing the tendency to rush, push and burn out. This term now feeds all my artistic endeavours.

SOLO-ing, the work I presented as part of Tipperary Dance in 2021 was a result of research undertaken on two residency periods supported by Tipperary Dance, Nenagh Arts Centre and Grand Studio Brussels. Connection, invitation and activation were key triggers for this movement investigation.  In improvisation, I’m attending to my body and my imagination and making many decisions about movement. I invite the audience into this space of decision making and vulnerability, making visible the mind in action through the body in motion. I need calmness in order to listen and I aim to move away from the sense of bravado and pushing that can arise in the urge to show dance skill or present some notion of strength.

I’m very interested in a residency at Tanztendenz to continue working on this approach, Powerful Softness. An interviewer recently referred to my practice as ‘quietly radical’. This sits well with me ansd emboldens me to carve out this pathway further. I’m excited to connect to more people and collaborators internationally, to learn from different settings and all that being in a new working place can provide – the calm focus and the excited freshness.”