Artist/Citizen: Choreographing the Nation Brand
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Artist/Citizen: Choreographing the Nation Brand Fearghus Ó Conchúir Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Ireland Maynooth September 2017 Head of Department: Prof. Gerry Kearns Supervisor: Prof. Gerry Kearns 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 5 List of Plates 6 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 7 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction Giving Voice to the Nation: Giving Body to the Nation 10 Citizens and the Nation 14 Nation Branding 16 Culture and the Nation Brand 21 ‘Contemporary’ Dance in Ireland 26 Situated Knowledges 30 Situating the Subject/Object of Research 37 Choreographer as Scholar 39 A Less-than-Creative (Somewhat Queer) Turn 40 Dance and Geography 43 Dance and Non-Representational Theory 47 Ethnography and Autoethnography 50 Scale 57 Chapter One – Producing Bodies in Twenty First Century Ireland Stilled Bodies 64 Obesity and Irish Bodies 70 Biopolitics: Colonialism, Catholicism and Neo-liberalism 74 Galway Dance Days: Female Alternatives 82 High Heels and Other Families 86 Poz-itive Reproduction 91 Dancing Dissensus 95 Aoife McAtamney: Reaching beyond Gender 102 Mo Mhórchoir Féin–A Prayer: Situating this Irish Body 104 Conclusion 113 Chapter Two – Choreographies of Commemoration The Casement Project ‘Chief Signifiers of the State’ 117 Commemoration Politics 119 Arts Council and the Ireland 2016 Programme 125 The Arts Council and Cultural Policy Context 128 Making Great Art Work–The Arts Council Strategy 134 Dance Policy in Ireland–A Brief History of Neglect 136 Dancing the Rising: ‘Be Irish and You’ll be Alright’ 141 Roger Casement 145 2 The Labour of Applications 152 The Open Call Application: Imagining The Casement Project 155 The Labour of Choreography 159 Bursary Award: Embodied Research 162 Conclusion 171 Chapter Three – Féile Fáilte: Dancing Out of Place April 1916: Landing on Banna 174 Arts Council Open Call: Planning Féile Fáilte 176 Holding the Line: Space for Surprise 181 Solidarities of Resilience and Inclusion: Curating Féile Fáilte 187 Siamsa Tíre 190 Croí Glan Integrated Dance Company 192 Catherine Young: ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ 196 Making Bodies Visible: John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre 198 Bare Bottoms on Banna 204 Queer Families and Queer Children 208 Bodies Out of Place 213 Conclusion 220 Chapter Four – In the Wings: Culture Ireland and the dance-artist abroad Creative Ireland and the Work of Nation Branding 223 From Cultural Relations Committee to Culture Ireland 230 ‘Towards an International Arts & Culture Strategy for the 21st Century’ 235 ‘Operationally Semi-Autonomous Division of the Department’ 244 Performing Cure in Hong Kong, 2014 252 Project Arts Centre as Home 257 Choreographies of Relation 260 Doing My Body 262 Occupy Central with Love and Peace 263 Culture Ireland and Cure 266 Dance Democracy 270 Taking Care of Breakfast 273 Corporeal Vulnerability and Hospitality 278 Asserting the Borders of Cure 281 Conclusion 283 Conclusion On Reflection 286 Postscript: Dancing into Creative Ireland 295 Bibliography 301 3 Appendices Note on Appendices 340 Appendix One: Porous Bursary Application 341 Appendix Two: Dance Project Award–Fearghus Ó Conchúir– The Casement Project 362 Appendix Three: Brief Supporting Info–The Casement Project 392 Appendix Four: ApplicationForm_OpenCallNationalProjects_2016 402 Appendix Five: FOCONCHUIR AC2016 Detailed Proposal-The Casement Project 411 Appendix Six: FOCONCHUIROpenCall_2016Phase2 Application Form 464 4 ABSTRACT This research examines the corporeal experience of dance artists in Ireland implicated in the production and promotion of the nation and in possibilities of citizenship at multiple scales. Dance, as an art-form practised in the formation of individual and collective bodies, is proposed as a valuable resource for imagining, embodying and reflecting on alternative corporealities that make spaces for diverse and contested experiences within and beyond Ireland’s borders. As an art form concerned with the organisation of movement in space, dance provides a framework for analysing the spatialities of substantive citizenship, recognising that the nation state is not the only scale at which citizenship operates. Who is permitted to appear where and when is a question that guides the geographical, ethical, political and choreographic perspectives deployed throughout. Also of concern has been how the corporeal knowledge and experience of choreography appears in the written form of a PhD thesis. In a challenge to totalising and deadening accounts of live performance, the thesis draws on the distinctive insights of the choreographer-scholar that nonetheless acknowledges the partial, mobile and emergent quality of its situated knowledge. Using a queer bricolage as methodology, the research focuses on my choreography as an example of contemporary dance practice, operating independently of formal structures of incorporation, but nonetheless dependent of multiple networks of support, to ask what agency is available to the individual dance artist in shaping the nation brand and in proposing structures hospitable to the kinds of embodiment disadvantaged by hegemonic conceptions of the national body. The research situates my choreographic practice in the context of cultural policy and practice in the Irish State, as evidenced through The Arts Council, Culture Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Creative Ireland. My recent work, The Casement Project, the largest of the Arts Council’s projects for the Ireland 2016 commemoration programme, offers valuable material for addressing the relationship between the dance artist and the nation. 5 LIST OF PLATES Plate 1.1 Promotional image for Emma Fitzgerald’s The Sea and the Shape of my Heart 100 Plate 1.2 Promotional image for Aoife McAtamney’s Softer Swells 102 Plate 1.3 Film still Fearghus Ó Conchúir Mo Mhórchoir Féin–A Prayer 105 Plate 1.4 Marie Curtin and film crew, Mo Mhórchoir Féin–A Prayer 109 Plate 1.5 Matthew Morris and Fearghus Ó Conchúir in Match 112 Plate 2.1 Roger Casement portrait 144 Plate 2.2 Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Cosán Dearg 164 Plate 2.3 Unidentified Man Standing in Front of Stone Wall [José Gonzalez] 167 Plate 2.4 Girl from the Putumayo region of Peru/Columbia 168 Plate 3.1 Group of Tribesmen from the Putumayo Region of Peru/Columbia performing a ritual dance in costume 182 Plate 3.2 The Casement Project poster image 184 Plate 3.3 Lecture Demonstration at the IWAMD, University of Limerick 184 Plate 3.4 Siamsa Tíre at Féile Fáilte 190 Plate 3.5 Croí Glan at Féile Fáilte 192 Plate 3.6 ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ by Catherine Young at Féile Fáilte 196 Plate 3.7 Irish Modern Dance Theatre at Féile Fáilte 198 Plate 3.8 Butterflies and Bones: The Casement Project at Féile Fáilte 204 Plate 3.9 Rusangano Family at Féile Fáilte 209 Plate 3.10 Butterflies and Bones: The Casement Project at Féile Fáilte 211 Plate 3.11 Butterflies and Bones: The Casement Project at Féile Fáilte 214 Plate 4.1 Production image Match, Bassano del Grappa 243 Plate 4.2 Production image Cure 252 Plate 4.3 Production image Cure 282 6 LIST OF ACRONYMS ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ACLP Advanced Cultural Leadership Programme CRC Cultural Relations Committee DACG Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht DAHG Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, DAHRRGA Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs DAST Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism DFA Department for Foreign Affairs DTF Dublin Theatre Festival EAG Expert Advisory Group GDP Gross Domestic Product GLEN Gay and Lesbian Equality Network GPO General Post Office, Dublin. LIFT London International Festival of Theatre NCFA National Campaign for the Arts NRT Non-Representational Theory PAC Project Arts Centre RTÉ Radio Teilifís Éireann TD Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament) UCD University College Dublin WHO World Health Organisation 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS That I’ve managed to complete this thesis is entirely due to the support, generosity and wisdom of a number of key individuals: Throughout my PhD research, my supervisor, Prof. Gerry Kearns has dedicated huge amounts of time and attention to helping me to refine my thinking. He has been judicious and generous in offering inspiration, challenge and empathy. Alongside Prof. Kearns, as part of my supervisory team, Prof. Karen Till and Cian O’Brien have provided encouragement, advice and knowledge, helping me to navigate the complications of my re-entry into academia while I maintained an artistic career. Thanks to them and to Niamh O’Donnell, an alliance of support between Project Arts Centre and Maynooth University has sheltered me as I’ve prepared this work. Thanks are also due to Dr. Andrea Valova and Conor Wilkinson, in Graduate Studies at Maynooth University, and to Kate McSweeney, at Project Arts Centre, for their part in guiding me through the institutional complexities and practicalities of my funding. The research would not have been possible without the support of the Irish Research Council’s inaugural Employment-based PhD Scholarship in 2012, and it required considerable institutional knowledge from everyone mentioned above to manage the opportunity, and me through it. Thank you to all those who have contributed to my research, especially the people I’ve interviewed, as well as the artists and others I’ve worked with in creating the choreography discussed here. It is to those networks of support that I return to discover what follows from this research. And finally, ongoing thanks to my husband Pete, who quietly ensures that I can get on with it. Buíochas óm’ chroí libh go léir. 8 INTRODUCTION 9 Giving Voice to the Nation: Giving Body to the Nation Reflecting on the centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising, in a review of the cultural highlights of 2016, journalist and cultural commentator, Fintan O’Toole asserted that ‘Fearghus Ó Conchúir and many others showed that it is still artists who give the nation its voice. And the Government actually noticed.’1 As a choreographer of contemporary dance in Ireland, such recognition alongside other leading artists – poets, visual artists and theatre makers – is not something to be taken for granted.