Birr Theatre & Arts Centre | Dance
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Legitimate Bodies Dance Company

(resident dance company 2007 - 2013)

“Simple, clever and hilarious…” Irish Times, Sep 2007
“Words and motion were in perfect balance…” Irish Times, Sep 2007
“Brilliant idea, brilliantly executed…” Scotland on Sunday, Aug 2008
“Funny and perceptive on so many levels…” The Herald, Aug 2008


BRIEF HISTORY

Legitimate Bodies Dance Company (resident dance company 2007 - 2013), led by artistic duo Nick Bryson and Cristina Goletti, is one of the most thrilling new dance initiative in Ireland. Nick and Cristina, who are both highly regarded dance artists, met on the Daghdha Dance Company’s mentoring programme and started a choreographic collaboration that ended up with an invitation to perform at the international dance festival “Performatica” in Mexico. Consequently their second piece was performed as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival 2007 at the DanceHouse to great success of audience and public and has been supported by Dance Ireland under the Incubator Programme.
At the beginning of October 2007 they founded Legitimate Bodies Dance Company that became the company in residence at the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, in Birr, Co.Offaly. With the support of Offaly County Council and The Arts Council, they furthered their artistic practise and initiated different dance educational and outreach programmes for children, youth and community, creating a momentum for contemporary dance in the Midlands. Since then they toured to various venues in Ireland, Italy and Northern Ireland and they received support from Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy to return to Mexico for a series of performances and workshops.
They have also collaborated with American dramaturg Talal Al Muhanna, Waterford Image Festival Chairman Nick Banks and Cork based actor Damian Punch.
The company has also been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008 to feature in a curated evening of dance with the comedic duo “Hanging in There”.



BIOBRAPHIES



Nick Bryson

Nick, originally from Belfast, trained as a dancer at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds and as a choreographer at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. He worked as a choreographer in residence at the Firkin Crane in Cork, taking his creations to Dublin, Amsterdam, New York and Basel amongst other places. As a dancer he has worked for Rebus, This Torsion, Myriad and Daghdha Dance Companies. He also holds an MA in Performance from the University of Limerick. He has also been invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008 one of his piece, “Hanging in there”, as part of a curated evening.

 

Cristina Goletti

Cristina, who is from Italy, trained at the London Contemporary Dance School where she gained a Postgraduate Diploma with distinction dancing and touring across Europe with Edge, the Postgraduate Company of LCDS. As a dancer, she performed works by Hofesh Schechter, Jonathan Lunn, Charles Linehan, Maresa Von Stockert and Yann Lheraux amongst others. In Ireland as part of the Daghdha Mentoring Programme, she was in Michael Klien’s “Sand Section” and in “Ruins” for Myriad Dance Company. She has also been teaching release technique across Europe, Japan and Mexico. Recent awards include “DanceWEB European Scholarship” Vienna 2008 and Bursary Award from The Irish Arts Council.

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