Oona Doherty Specky Clark
Freesheet
About Specky Clark
My own personal myth. A dark and primal sound drags us kicking and screaming into an alternative reality. A place the mind can only reach through grief. Held in the arms of Ireland. Inspirations from Pat McCabes the Butcher Boy, Billy Elliot, Francis Bacon, Animal Farm, my father in the Abattoir, my grandfather in the butchers, my great great grandfather on the boat, a young boy dancing in a Francis Bacon painting.
On this Halloween night the veil has been lifted to worlds and parts of us we didn’t know possible. It’s from a pain in the heart where you build a hard man. Walls are built from loss.
Oona Doherty
Specky Clark, mixing personal history with Irish mythology. Part fiction, part biographical, all elements are overlapping, and it will become difficult to determine what’s myth and what’s reality.
It goes back to a time when families worked in the abattoirs of Belfast. Pigs in the garden of New lodge.
There’s something in the meat of me, bloodline, there is a pink fleshy vulnerability to me, to dancing, there is a violence in me.
This new show will follow the story of Oona’s Great Great Grandfather Specky Clark and his arrival in Belfast.
For this piece which will be unfolding in a series of theatrical images, Oona Doherty will collaborate with many faithful and new partners. The production features music from Irish band Lankum, Gavino Murgia and David Holmes & Raven Violet. Maxime Jerry Fraisse is sound designer, Irish playwright Enda Walsh is dramaturg, Sabine Dargent is set designer, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust is costume designer and long-time collaborator John Gunning is lighting designer. The piece will be performed by an international cast of 9 dancers.
About Oona Doherty / OD Works
Since 2016, Oona Doherty has been creating international dance works. The Repertory of the company includes Oona’s pieces from different formats such as a solo, Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus, or a group piece titled Specky Clark but also art installations/ exhibition and films.
OD Works Ltd was established in 2020 and the French O.D Works Association, is established in Marseille, France since 2023. In addition to creating and producing works that receive international recognition, the Company is building outreach and education programs for citizens of the world.
Dates
2025 Oona is nominated Associated artist at MC2 Grenoble. The Company is touring Specky Clark for large stages, the solo Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus, as well as rebuilding the cage, set element of Hard to be soft, a Belfast prayer, a 2017 piece that allows the transmission of choreographic movement to a group of young local girls.
2024 Oona is the artistic director of the NYDC, UK and creates a piece for 32 young dancers. Oona is nominated Associated artist at the Pavillon Noir, Aix-en-Provence, France and Sadler’s Wells of London. Oona creates a new piece with important set design, Specky Clark, that will premiere in November 2024 in Pavillon Noir.
2023 Touring international of the 3 pieces of the company and installation of the company in Marseille France.
2022 Oona creates Navy Blue for 12 dancers, as she is one of the 7 Choreographer selected for Big pulse dance Alliance. The premiere took place in Kampnagel, Hamburg on August 10. And was co-produced by LEAD. At the same time, she choreographed the international tour of musician Jamie xx. In 2022, Lady Magma was remounted at the 76th Festival d’Avignon, France.
2021 Oona receives the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for her choreographic career. Her solo Lazarus attracts the attention of the collective (La) Horde, head of the Ballet national de Marseille, with collaborater Sandrine Lescourant adapting it for the ballet’s 22 dancers.
2019 Oona is featured at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine Saint Denis. In the same year, she creates Lady Magma produced by Prime cut Productions Belfast and La Briquetteie Paris.
2018 international touring of Hard to be soft – A Belfast Prayer and Hope Hunt & the Ascension into Lazarus, as well as collaborations with Gilla Band and The rubber bandits. the first
installation of Death of a hunter exhibition at Belfast Golden thread gallery. Produced by Doherty herself or through Prime Cut.
2017 she creates Hard to be Soft – A Belfast Prayer. This show is a physical prayer for her city, Belfast. And later voted best UK dance show by the guardian.
2016 Creation of Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus, first solo that brought her worldwide recognition. And self-produced by Doherty.
Artistic Team & Credits
Choreography, Writing & Direction Oona Doherty in collaboration with the cast MUSIC Lankum / Cantu Tenore Gavino Murgia / featuring David Holmes & Raven Violet
Composition & Sound Design Maxime Jerry Fraisse
Lighting Design John Gunning
Set Design Sabine Dargent assisted by Caroline Menassol
Costume Design Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust in collaboration with Constance Tabourga, assisted by Aela Bristiel, Lena Manin, Paul Escamez, Ambre Beylier, Meryl Degez et Christina Clerisse
Rehearsal Director Solène Weinachter
Audio Cast Louise Conaghan, Janie Doherty, Sam Finnegan, Stephen Rae, Garry Rowntree
Technical Direction Marie Prédour
Lighting Manager Thibault Gambari
Creation Set Manager Lisa M. Barry
Set Engineer Juliette Pierangelo
Latex Prop Conception Jessie Chalumeau
Photos & Visuals Luca Truffarelli
Subtitles Nadir Bouassria after a translation of Francesco Leto
Cast Diarmuid Amstrong, Maëva Berthelot, Malick Cissé, Tom Grand Mourcel, Gerard Headley, Clay Koonar, Gennaro Lauro, Michael McEvoy, Erin O’Reilly, Faith Prendergast.
Special thanks to Jen Malarkey and Enda Walsh
OD Works
Development Director Dorothée Alemany
Logistics Lucie Gissinger Maurandy
Administration Christine Maupetit
Production OD WORKS
Coproduction Ballet Preljocaj / CCN Aix- en-Provence (FR), Dublin Dance Festival & The Abbey Theater (IE), Sadler’s Wells London (UK), Kampnagel Hambourg (DE), Festspielhaus St. Pölten (AU), Théâtre de la ville Paris (FR), Tanz Köln (DE), MC2: Grenoble (FR), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille (FR)
Residencies Ballet Preljocaj / CCN Aix- en-Provence, KLAP-Maison pour la Danse Marseille, CCN-Ballet national de Marseille (accueil studio)
With the support of Adami
Specky Clark Tour receives support from Culture Ireland.
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