“If dancing is the alternative to language, has language been inadequate for these people? Has language failed these people? Has language betrayed these people?”

Quote

Related Manuscript

Has language failed these people?

The idea that words are not enough was something that followed Friel through his writing career, and informed many of his most well-known plays.

The Creative Process

Robbie Blake, 'Running the ending' score

This is Robbie Blake’s original graphic score (pp. 1-5) for their live performance piece ‘Running the ending’, which is featured in this exhibition as a short film and which was inspired by Blake’s engagement with the Brian Friel Papers at the National Library of Ireland.

The Creative Process

So what is surfacing, original improvisation

This is Jessie Keenan’s original dance improvisation to audio she recorded in response to the question ‘So what is surfacing?’, adapted from a phrase written by Brian Friel during the composition process for Dancing at Lughnasa (1990).

“Dig back to move forward more clearly.” – Jessie Keenan

The Creative Process

Running the ending (work in progress)

In this video clip taken from a Dance House residency in May 2019, Robbie Blake and Jessie Keenan try out Robbie’s new score for ‘Running the Ending’ for the first time.

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’.