Through the Valley She Runs
Through the Valley She Runs
A dance performance with live music in Glen River Park by choreographer/dance artist Helga Deasy in collaboration with dance artist Sara Hernandez and singer/musician Susan McManamon
Saturday, September 28th, 6.15 pm
This mystical and dreamy performance explores the relationship between imagination and riverscape sensitively drawing attention to the Glen River as a source of life, healing and regeneration.
In a co-creative process with the river, the artists respond to the natural environment of the Glen, interweaving movement and sound in a meandering dance which follows the river, its energy and flow.
The work is informed by insights gained on river ecology and the impact of pollution on aquatic environments through a collaboration with aquatic ecologist Dr Neil Coughlan, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.
Further, the artists are inspired by Irish Mythology which depicts rivers as goddesses characterised as purveyors of wisdom, poetry, mothers and healers, representing the eternal cycle of life and renewal.
‘Through the Valley She Runs’ explores how a practice of dance, sound and embodied awareness can create new ways of knowing and bring about perceptual transformation in how we relate to and connect with nature whereby imagination constitutes an opening of possibilities for a hopeful future for our planet.
‘Through the Valley She Runs is a UCC Creative initiative in collaboration with Gleann a Phuca, Dance Cork Firkin Crane and UCC Environmental Research Institute’
Helga Deasy
Helga Deasy (Ireland/Germany) is a choreographer, dance artist and dance facilitator. Exploring themes of identity, belonging, migration and care through the immediate expressive potential of the moving body, her practice encompasses performance making, cross-disciplinary collaboration and socially engaged dance. It is grounded in choreological studies and her research into somatic practices and empowerment. A recipient of multiple awards, Helga has created a body of work for stage and film presented nationally and internationally. She feels passionate about the transformative potential of dance and works in arts and health settings, is a lead-facilitator on the Teacher Artist Partnership Programme and an early-years practitioner with Graffiti Theatre Company.
Sara Hernandez
Sara Hernández is a Dance Artist based in Cork. She studied at the conservatory of dance “Institut del Teatre” in Barcelona and danced with Ballet Biarritz Junior and Cienfuegos Danza in Spain. She has been collaborating with Helga Deasy Choreographer since 2016 on the pieces, Helica, River Fragments, State of Flux, Cura and Built on Bridges.
Sara has presented work at Cork Midsummer Festival 2017 and Skibbereen Dance Festival 2018. She has created and performed commissioned works for: The Cork Butter Museum in 2019 and 2021, Cork County Council, Macroom 2021 and for Faoin Speir- In the Open programme, Cork 2022.
Susan McManamon
Susan McManamon is a choral music director working in participatory projects in the community since 2014. She completed her MA in Ethnomusicology at UCC in 2015 with first class hons researching methods of empowerment in group music programs for disadvantaged girls with the Hope Foundation in India.
In 2019 and 2021, Susan worked with Helga as MusicAlive Artists in Residence on ‘Creative Enquiry: Arts and Older People’. She was artist for Museum of Song: Ireland and Ukraine 2022 and 2023, a project connecting Ukranian and local communities through song sharing. She is director of The Ferns, a West Cork collective exploring the joy of folk, traditional and original songs using acapella harmonies.
Susan received the Arts Council Agility Award in 2023 and 2024.
