Professional Training: Joel O'Donoghue

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About Joel

Joel has worked as a performer for a range of internationally renowned companies such as Luca Silvistrini’s Protein, Ben Wright’s BGROUP, and Hagit Yakira Dance. Joel also featured as guest artist for Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal, in the restating of Masurca Fogo and Viktor. As a choreographer he has performed his own work at a variety of established venues both in the UK and abroad, such as Sadler’s Wells Lillian Baylis Studio, The Place, Tramway, TROIS-CL (Luxembourg) and L’Escaut (Brussels). Joel was also commissioned to create a dance film for Ballet Boyz in January 2020, which was premiered in March (last year) as part of an online festival celebrating the life of Sir Ken Robinson. Joel has received Arts Council funding consecutively over the last four years for the creation and touring of a trilogy of works entitled: GUT, HEART, and BRAIN.

In 2016 Joel received a Distinction in Performance Design and Practice, at UAL, and later obtained his Level 1 & 2 City & Guild qualification in Carpentry and Joinery. Joel has since used these skills to design, source and construct set for both his own works and other peoples.

Class description

My class encompasses a range of styles and techniques - from release based floor work to exploring Lecoq’s 7 states of tension in the body, from structured contact-based improvisation exercises to repetitive footwork patterns inspired by folk dance. But what knits it all together?, I hear you say. In all honesty I’m still trying to work that out, but the most obvious answer to me right now is play. 

Throughout the classes we will use these different exercises (or structures) as a starting point to focus both the body and mind, giving each participant a common ground to work from, and see where we go from there. 

These classes are in response to my current work in development DENS. DENS is an intergenerational highly interactive dance/visual-art work, exploring the importance of nurturing one's inner child, and incorporating playtime and creativity into everyday-life. The work, which will be specifically tailored to outdoor site-specific spaces, is a challenge for both the 4 performers and audience to build, dress, and interact with small wooden structures (aka dens). As part of the work, the dancers perform a series of contact-based movement sequences, building structures out of people (as well as wood).

Bio provided by the artist