Sibéal Davitt & Kristyn Fontanella

During their shared experience on the MA Contemporary Dance Performance programme at University of Limerick (UL) in 2013/14, Sibéal Davitt & Kristyn Fontanella discovered many similarities on their journey from traditional into contemporary movement. After completing the course, they felt compelled to collaborate and create new movement together.

They were awarded Dance Ireland’s Mentored Residency in Traditional Dance under world-renowned dance artist and performer Colin Dunne. During this residency, they explored the connections between the established styles of Irish traditional dance (step dance and sean-nós dance) and found a new language of movement to traditional music.

The aim of Sibéal and Kristyn’s joint choreographic practice is to debunk certain attitudes, which exist in the realm of traditional Irish dance. It is their view that a well-recognised division exists regarding the different forms of Irish dance. Irish dancers perceive other Irish dancers to be different, from another world, but are yet all defined under the same title.

Sibéal and Kristyn ask what the future is for Irish traditional dance, or the oxymoronic ‘contemporary traditional Irish dance’, in a world where its meaning has become blurred and also pastiche in a commercial sense.