Irish Moves, an illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland

Ireland has been rightly celebrated for its literature; it has long been perceived as a culture of words. But what of Ireland’s arts of the physical, the sensual, the body – its dance and physical theatre? As Irish Moves shows, there is a vibrant dance culture in Ireland today – from ballet to contemporary dance and physical theatre, and even the much-maligned traditional dancing has been given a new lease of life post-Riverdance.

Irish Moves explores the history of dance in Ireland. Beautifully produced, featuring many rare and striking images, Irish Moves is a meticulously researched volume which showcases – and in some cases salvages – the stories of Ireland’s unsung movers: actors, dancers, choreographers, playwrights, directors. Focusing on the people who value what’s in between the words, it explores in their own voices the creative journeys taken by Ninette de Valois, Colin Dunne, Jean Butler, David Bolger, Tom Hickey, Joan Davis and many more – artists past and present who have devoted their lives to physical expression, despite the fact that in Ireland their medium was ignored and, in some cases, erased from memory. In particular, the book rescues from obscurity both the Abbey School of Ballet and the lost chapter on modern dance in the 1940s.

Irish Moves not only provides a map of dance and physical theatre in Ireland, it is also a meditation on the Irish nation’s complicated attitude to the body. As the author explores how the Irish moved from, “the naked man galloping bareback across Kilkee Strand in celebration of the festival of Lughnasa, to the alarmingly straitjacketed movements of our ‘national’ dance”, Irish Moves offers surprising and sometimes disconcerting revelations about Irish society. But this is no dry history: this is a beautiful book certain to appeal to scholars, dancers and enth