MOVEMENT BRIDGE

Northern Ireland

Music by Emma O’Halloran

Movement Bridge is a multi-channel video installation that documents and shows the process and culminating performance of the community engagement performance project outlines below:

In 2022 Site-Specific Dances was invited to create a community dance piece In Derry Northern Ireland. Against a backdrop of age-old animosity and generational trauma that goes back to The Troubles, the idea for the piece was to use dance, a medium heavily reliant on trust and teamwork, to bridge social and political divides. Michael Spencer Phillips organized and led a series of inter-generational community workshops that included both Catholic and Protestant participants over a six month period in Derry. Eschewing dance’s predilection for the young and and highly trained body, the project included community participants between the ages of 5 and 85 with varying levels of dance experience.

This community-based work culminated in an urban performance that took place in June of 2022 and activated key sites in the city in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

Movement Bridge was commissioned by the Museum of Free Derry, The Bloody Sunday Trust, ArtsEverywhere, and the Musagetes Foundation.

Year of Completion: 2023

CONCEPT: Michael Spencer Phillips + Dino Kiratzidis

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS: Michael Spencer Phillips

DIRECTOR / CHOREOGRAPHER: Michael Spencer Phillips

ORIGINAL SCORE: Emma O’Halloran

EDITING AND VIDEOGRAPHY: Emma Kazaryan

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Michael Spencer Phillips

PERFORMANCE DESIGN: Dino Kiratzidis