Choreographer: Liz Roche, Mufutau Yusef, Maria Campos & Guy Nader
Music: Irish Chamber Orchestra
Kicking off in the Dublin dance festival in spectacular fashion is Chora. The premiere performance from Luail, Ireland’s newly established National Dance Company, Chora is a triple bill of new dance works. The Irish Chamber Orchestra accompanies each piece from a raised platform behind the dancers.
The first piece is called Invocation, choreographed by one of Luail’s choreographers in residence Mufutau Yusef. In a dark and gloomy atmosphere, expertly created by stage and costume designer Katie Davenport, we first see our dancers. Shrouded in black clothing, only one with their face uncovered. The orchestral accompaniment, from behind a veil, for this piece is Dig Deep by Julia Wolfe. Through an impressive series of movements, we see one dancer invoke her past in order to challenge it.
The dark landscape is rolled away to reveal a bright red floor and the second piece of the night, Constellations, begins. Bright lighting descends to ensure a complete change from the first landscape. Choreographed by Liz Roche, Luail’s artistic director, the series of movements in this piece centre on connection and how energy is changed by interactions. The dancers are beautiful and graceful as they move together.
Following the interval, we move into our final piece, I Contain Multitudes. Choreographed by Maria Campos and Guy Nader. Inspired by Walt Whitmans ‘Leaves of Grass’, this piece is truly the apex of this performance. The orchestra is behind a mostly see-through veil accompanying the dancing with music based on Canto Ostinato by Simeon Ten Holt, rearranged by Marjin Van Prooijen for the Irish Chamber Orchestra. It opens with the dancers walking around the stage in total silence. Occasionally noticing each other and slowly starting to come together. Eventually, the music begins and the dancers begin forming and reforming into different groupings with precision. At one point they stand across the front of the stage, being pulled back and forth in different groupings, almost reminding us of a curtain call. The lighting in this section, by Sinéad McKenna, is particularly phenomenal as an interplay between shadow, the musicians and the dancers occurs.
A triumph, Chora sets a very high bar for all of Luail’s future productions.
Reviewed 13th May 2025.
