New Work

Portrait: Lucia Kickham

Lucia Kickham is a Dublin-based dance artist performing and collaborating internationally since 2011. Training in the Netherlands she has worked with companies and artists which include Liz Roche Company, Philip Connaughton, Junk Ensemble, Jessie Keenan + Tonnta, Maria Nilsson Waller, Mary Wycherly, TRASH(NL) and Oonagh Kearney.

Training intensively with David Zambrano in Flying Low and Passing Through techniques, Lucia has developed her interest in group dynamics within improvisation, composition and teaching environments.

Lucia was Dance Ireland HATCH Artist 2018, Associate Artist with Liz Roche Company 2018/2021 and in 2020 was recipient of an Arts Council Next Generation Award. Her recent work INIT: The Warm Up Project was presented in Dublin Dance and Fringe Festivals. Lucia was awarded a Arts Council Commission Award through Liz Roche Company to research Middle End Beginning, a work exploring shifting perspectives on dance making, presented at Modes of Capture Symposium 2021.

Portraits

These portraits capture a specific moment in time for eight individuals. The unwavering single-shot focus of the camera offers a poignant and intimate closeness to each subject. They were filmed in April 2021 in locations specially chosen by each subject: a place of sanctuary within the five-kilometre radius of their home. The films are inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Test from the 1960s and Jane McCormick’s This Moment capturing the significant people behind the TownHall Cavan Arts Space. The films pay homage to the dedication and talent which sustained the Don’t anticipate the ending project.

Directed by Robbie Blake
Filmed and Edited by Steve O’Connor

The Creative Process

Lucia Kickham, 'Dance is...'

In this audio file, Lucia Kickham reads aloud from a group automatic writing exercise in which participants responded to the prompts ‘language is’, ‘music is’, and ‘dance is’.

The Creative Process

Rehearsal, 14 August 2020

These photographs were taken by Zosia Kuczyńska during project workshops and rehearsals at Dance House on 14 August 2020.

The Creative Process

So what is surfacing, 25 March 2021

These photographs were taken by Zosia Kuczyńska during and between filming sessions for Jessie Keenan’s short film ‘So what is surfacing’ at the Museum of Literature Ireland on 25 March 2021.

Running the ending

This is a film, directed by Robbie Blake, about exhaustion, self-expression and joyousness. Blake’s score uses a graphic notation to represent three states: run, reset/shake-out, dance.

The Creative Process

Dance solos, 31 August 2020

These are early versions of dance solos by Lucia Kickham, Marion Cronin, and Sarah Ryan. Each solo was created using some of the listening and responding techniques developed by Jessie Keenan and adapted for Zoom workshops held in April 2020.

The Creative Process

Jessie Keenan notes, 4

Jessie prepares for rehearsals with dancers Marion Cronin, Lucia Kickham, and Sarah Ryan.