Dancing Dots
Dancing Dots is a participative art project for 7-12 year olds and their families living on St. Cuthberts Meadow, Clondalkin.
Created for South Dublin County Council’s arts programme In Context 5 by artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly - working with dancer Cindy Cummings and musicians Anna Tanvir & Maninder Singh - these dancing dots are studies of the human body in motion reduced to moving dots. Based on the research of Dr. Gunnar Johansson (1911-1998), a father of contemporary perceptive psychology, the dancing dots reveal the extraordinary ability of the brain to understand the human body in motion from tiny fragments of visual information - a little like how we look at art, our heads constructing elaborate figures from just sketchy lines or brushstrokes. The artwork was created through a series of dance and music workshops using motion capture technology to record the movements of children dancing and composing these movements into a joyful fresco of dancing dot figures. It was projected at a series of celebratory event at the end of the school year with music, dance and refreshments for the whole community.
Over 2 weeks, Anne and Denis worked with Startbright afternoon club, 5th class from St Ronan’s SNS, 4th class from Talbots SNS, Bawnogue Community Centre, and Funky Feet Dance Group, Bawnogue. Celebrations days were held in June where the children could perform for their families and view the Dancing Dots film that the artists created.
Gallery
Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly Biography
Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly are a team of artists and architects, winners of the AIB award in 2009, and have been making art as the collaborative practice Cleary and Connolly for over twenty years, sharing our time between Ireland and Paris.
Their work is trans-disciplinary: they believe boundaries should never curtail creativity, and have dedicated their lives to sharing this message, working with people from all walks of life - artists, scientists, historians, teachers, ecologists - and of all ages to make work that is really inclusive and encourages others to make art too.
Over the years, Cleary and Connlly have developed multidisciplinary art projects through partnerships with world class galleries and museums, universities, arts organisations, research centres and schools in Ireland, France, Britain, Germany and the US. These include the Pompidou Centre in France; the Barbican and the Tate Modern in London; the National Museum of Ireland and CURAM Research Institute in Ireland.
In 2018, Cleary and Connolly founded the School of Looking to ensure their practice endures and grows. The School of Looking became active in Summer 2019 with invitations to take part in festivals in Ireland, the UK and Germany. They launched the Eco Showboat project in 2022 to address the crucial issue of climate change and it has been an unprecedented success, gaining support from organisations and people all over the country.
It has been a wonderful voyage of discovery for them and now the School of Looking will perpetuate this adventure as an enduring organisation, providing more and more compelling opportunities for people to be creative in active and constructive contexts.
INDECELTIC (Anna Tanvir & Maninder Singh) Biography
Indeceltic is a duo of harp, guitar, and two voices formed in India in 2017. Anna Tanvir and Maninder Singh perform their own compositions and carefully chosen folk songs from around the world in many different languages. Their program is a soul-stirring musical journey from India across Europe, to Ireland; praising the beauty of nature and the wonder of the natural world.
Anna has designed and built her own wooden house in France and makes her own clothes. Maninder is an accomplished cook of Indian and European recipes, and is constantly researching locally produced ingredients. Both of them have been involved in many ecological projects in India. They now live on a small- holding in County Kilkenny.
Cindy Cummings Biography
Born in Wenatchee Washington, USA, Cindy Cummings studied Dance and Theatre at the University of Oregon, and in NYC. As a choreographer / performer / improviser, her work is an adventurous mix of contemporary & traditional dance techniques from around the world, the majority of which are collaborations in a diverse range of mediums and settings.
She has contributed much to the Irish performing arts since her first appearance in Zero Crossing with icontact dance theatre for the 1990 Dublin Theatre Festival. Her extensive catalogue of choreography for dance and theatre includes: three pieces with Siamsa Tire: Oileán, rEvolution (with visual artist Andrew Duggan), and Tearmann (written by Michael Harding); Triur Ban with poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and photographer Amelia Stein (poetry/photographic/dance project); ‘The Bacchae of Baghdad‘, ‘The Hostage, Playboy of the Western World and Good Evening Mr Collins for the Abbey and Peacock Theatres; REBUS…adventures in new dance performance (performance/research project) at the Granary Theatre, Cork; Chair with Operating Theatre, and Peregrinity (for the Daylighting the City Festival) with the National Sculpture Factory.