Legitimate Bodies Dance Company / Hanging in There

Legitimate Bodies Dance Company, Co-directed by Nick Bryson and Cristina Goletti and supported by Offaly County Council, was founded in October 2007 to create new and accessible dance work at Birr Theatre for performance around Ireland and beyond.

In collaboration with Damian Punch, Nick and Cristina remounted ‘Hanging in There’ previously shown at Dublin Fringe 2007 along with another foundation work ‘Lingering on A Diagonal’. As one of the newest dance companies in Ireland, ‘Legitimate Bodies’ have already been supported by Culture Ireland to tour Mexico and will present a new full-length trio, ‘Touching Distance’ to Irish audiences this autumn.

The festival TANEC PRAHA is held annually in June. The important mission of the festival is to inspire local artists and to popularize dance art in the eyes of a broader public. An integral part of the festival comprises creative meetings of foreign artists with Czech dance community as well as discussions with media. Since the mid 90s, the visit rate of the event has increased considerably - nowadays most festival performances are sold out. The interest of public and media goes hand in hand with high appreciation of the festival abroad which manifests itself in the high number of international appraisals.

The programme of the 21st edition of the festival works, above all, with the notion of diversity, attractiveness, and variability of contemporary dance. Visual effects, multi screen projections, an amalgamate of styles ranging from modern techniques to street dance and hip hop, these are the recent trends that, if combined with quality direction, enrich the audience with extraordinary experiences. This label applies absolutely to the gala opening of the festival which will take place at Music Theatre Karlín on June 2nd, 2009, at 8 pm. It will present, for the first time in the Czech Republic, the French ensemble Montalvo-Hervieu, an ensemble that is being a success at European, as well as overseas festivals. Czech spectators will be offered the piece “Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin” which was premiered at the prestigious Biennale in Lyon.