Spinstren (2002)
Enchantment.
Here is a story about a girl who steals a top.
A wooden top, precious to its owner, who has carved it by hand.
This is a story about a girl who fell in love with spinning,
not because of movement, but because of stillness.
Spinstren was a dance theatre production from half/angel funded by the Arts Councils of Ireland and England in 2002. With a feminist slant and a willingness to play with the outrageous as well as the poetic, Spinstren span together existing and invented stories about women and spinning – the myth of Arachne, the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty and the haunting spinning tops of the Spinstren. It combined rich veins of poetic text, sound and video with a visual and choreographic use of performers and toured Ireland, England and Germany in 2002 / 3.
She told me that if I bathed the distaff with blood, strange alchemies would come upon me.
She told me that if I span and pricked my finger, I could exchange blood for knowledge.
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, Taunton, UK (2003)
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bristol, UK (2003).
Corn Exchange, Dorchester, UK (2003).
THEatre SPACE @ Henry Place, Dublin Fringe Festival (2003).
Institute for Choreography & Dance, Cork (2002)
Marktalle, Hamburg, Germany (2002)
Exeter Phoenix, UK (2002)
Granary Theatre, Cork (2002)
They were calling her. She could hear it in her deep sleep.
Gentle almost- sounds, in harmony
Funded by:
Arts Council of Ireland, Projects Scheme (2002)
Ésmee Fairbairn Foundation, UK (2002)
Arts Council of Ireland,
Awards to Choreographers (2001)
South West Arts, UK, Research & Development Grant (2001)