Dancers’ Reflection on CHORA – Rosie Stebbing
6 May 2025
As a member of Luail’s first-ever ensemble, Rosie Stebbing reflects on the intensity and ambition of performing a triple bill in the company’s debut season. Her writing captures the contrasts between each choreographer’s process, the connections forged through shared movement, and the deeper questions the work invites about time, presence, and relationality.
Rosie shares her perspective:
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As the first ever performance by the first ever ensemble of the new national dance company, performing a triple bill on the Bord Gáis stage certainly feels like a baptism of fire! And yet this vision and ambition also feels like just the right way to catapult Luail into its first season.
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As we developed these works with the choreographers over the past several months, we have also been getting to know each other within the company – learning how we move and collaborate as well as forging new friendships and connections. Having the opportunity now to share what we have been working on with Irish audiences for the first time feels like a beautiful culmination of the first six months of Luail’s existence.
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Being part of the creation of the Chora triple bill has been an enriching experience for me as a dancer. Our versatility and ability to shift between different modes of dancing, thinking and performing is really put to the test in the performance of the programme. From the powerful, explosive nature of Mufutau Yusuf’s work Invocation, to the subtlety and spatial architecture of Liz Roche’s Constellations, to the physical precision and never-ding momentum of I Contain Multitudes by Guy Nader and Maria Campos, we as dancers get the chance to investigate and embody three contrasting movement vocabularies and performative states. Bringing together the work of these choreographers through three diverse creation processes has also been inspiring. Mufutau Yusuf’s process often drew on improvisation sessions departing from ideas and imagery of ritual, ancestry, trauma and healing. With Liz Roche, we built sequences of movement which were then reworked, interrupted, deconstructed and reconfigured to reveal new possibilities. Working with Guy Nader and Maria Campos allowed us to dive into a highly specific contact technique, starting with foundational physical principles and building towards dynamic and thrilling group lifts.
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The format of the triple bill gives the dancer a rare opportunity to find connections in real time between works which may have very different styles, allowing for new understandings to be formed and greater depths to be explored. From within the programme, the thread which I experience weaving these pieces together is the question of how we relate to the people around us, both in the immediate present and stretching across time. Invocation links us to our ancestors as we connect to each other through movement and ritual in the present moment. Constellations weaves together a tapestry of real and imagined meetings, the multiple different paths a life can take and the effect of an individual life being touched by another. I Contain Multitudes brings our immediate relationship to each other within the ensemble into sharp focus. The work is a swirling current of momentum, which requires us to stay constantly attuned to where we are in time and space and to where we are in relation to each other. It requires trust and total presence.
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In this spirit, I am excited to now to share and connect through this show to our audiences; to the wonderful Luail team who have worked so hard to bring us here; to the choreographers through their work; to my fellow dancers on stage; and to everyone who nurtures and fuels the art of dance in Ireland- past, present and future.
