Two weeks ago I had the immense pleasure of interviewing two Dublin-based directors, Megan and Jessica Kennedy, and seeing their latest production of Dances Like a Bomb. They are known for their innovative dance pieces, having multiple retellings and devised dance shows under their wing. Every breath, turn, and swish of a skirt tells a story. Junk Ensemble Productions move away from the world of traditional dance performance and into a maze of non-verbal drama that magnifies the expanses of the human soul.
In Dances Like a Bomb, acclaimed actor Mikel Murfi and leading Irish dance artist Finola Cronin dance the story of a pair’s relationship as they navigate the nuanced process of ageing. They both challenge the stigma around older dancers and express the silent struggles that come with ageing; be it a discordant fight between the anguished wife and the drunk husband or an amusing moment of voiceover as the two actors, cross-dressed, imitate one another. In any case, snippets of their individuality and universality open up to the public eye through movement.
A choreographic story with the key theme of ageing was long overdue. While the 2010s were a decade of change in Central Europe, Irish artists were still lost in a sea of jobs that ignored the demands of their bodies and dance-through shows that shied away from older characters as leads. As Megan and Jessica put it:
At the time we made it, this was a very topical matter with no older dancers on Irish stages.
But the directing duo was determined to change things. This 2024 production is their third remount of the piece When asked if anything was reimagined along the way, both stressed the importance of actors finding impulses, and how lost impulses often muddle the intent of choreography. Evidently, it was up to Mikel and Finola to shape the show with their movements. The natural growth of this piece felt perfect at its origin. This latest remount resonated just as strongly with the two directors. It wasn’t a complete reflection of previous performances but one, where each movement was revisited by the performers to keep the central theme at its core.
Every vignette in the on-stage couple’s life shares a certain truth with the audience. Improvisations of dying transform the macabre into a positive burst of energy that keeps the couple going. A reinterpretation of a seductive heel dance highlights the woman’s still youthful energy. A health-induced separation punctures the status quo, when the husband falls ill. In the vein of Pixar UP’s opening scene, the show guides us through moments in the pair’s life. It never lingers on a positive or negative. It always explores something new.
A unique director’s vision for a show that celebrates ageing was there. But how does one go about working with older dancers? The same way as any other show: as long as the actors are aware of their body and the directors encourage this awareness, an incredible world of possibilities opens up. As voiced by the Kennedys themselves, “We can all do things that we don’t know we can.” The directors encouraged their dancers to work with their abilities, not against them. That February evening, the two performers illuminated the theatre with vibrant unapologetic energy. Though unfamiliar, the combination of strong and old suited dance like a glove. It seems that Dances Like a Bomb spoke to many members of the audience in the Pavilion, who saw themselves represented on stage. Theatre should be a space where any kind of people should be able to come together and celebrate that, which unites them. There are many shows, which are aimed towards the elderly population, but, as a rule, drama takes precedence over comedy, and dialogue – over movement.
Junk Ensemble’s next big production, Dolores, will see a return to their 2018 reimagining of Nabokov’s Lolita and give a voice to yet another world glossed over and disguised by poetic language. The female protagonist of the novel, twelve-year-old Dolores, has long been an object of perverse male fantasy, and many marketing ploys both for the novel and its adaptations have encouraged this. While the two directors highly value Nabokov’s writing style, referential scenography is only half of their vision. A feminist retelling from the perspective of Dolores, and the audience’s response to the piece is what has pushed them to resurrect it.
When the audience reaction is the same as our reaction, that’s when it works.
So there you have it. Junk Ensemble offers their international audience a diverse range of dance shows ranging from adaptations of well-known classics to devised pieces like Dances Like a Bomb. With the latter they present an older couple in an unfamiliar way; they are raw, they are alluring, and they reveal their internal world to us. A world, which an older audience can confidently identify with.
WORDS: Rita Chernikova
