Swedish-Irish dance company brings Flora Fauna project to rural Wicklow

The company is building a creative silk road connecting homelands Sweden and Ireland via land and sea, in search of a more ecological and sustainable way of touring and working. The productions are designed to suit a wide range of venues, making it possible to reach rural communities and smaller venues as well as the traditional theatre spaces.

Through electronic music, dance, video, and scenography, Lumen creates a poetic and playful world that vibrates, shivers, thunders, glitters and glows. For the performance, the company drew inspiration from the animal and plant kingdoms. It’s both hopeful and melancholic as the bear, wolf, reindeer, mushroom, and even the sun are danced into existence.

Flora Fauna Project is an international dance company based in Östersund and Dublin. Founded in 2017, the company is led by Swedish choreographer Maria Nilsson Waller and Irish artist Stace Gill.

Maria Nilsson Waller is a choreographer, dancer, and designer, born and raised in Östersund. She has been working in dance for over 20 years and has created 14 professional productions as well as several large community projects, including The River 2020 where 17 women from Dublin’s NEIC contemporary danced on Project Arts Centre stage, in collaboration with DCC and Michael Darragh MacAuley.

Stace Gill is an artist who works across disciplines with music, text, dance, and film. She has been releasing music professionally for over 10 years with several Irish record labels, most recently with Paragon Records, through the band The Sei.

Maria, artistic director of Flora Fauna Project, said: “Lumen is somewhat of a total visual stage-experience. Through music, light, scenography, and choreography, we attempt to create a living world on stage that reminds us of nature and prompts us to see it with different eyes. We aim to awaken a new love and wonder for the richness that surrounds us everywhere. If we don’t understand the value of nature beyond the industrial, how can we then care for and live in long-term harmony with our planet?”

The performance at the Brockagh Centre takes place on Friday, May 17 at 7pm. It’s family-friendly, and children under eight years old are welcome accompanied by an adult.

Tickets cost €18 with a reduced admission of €10 for the unemployed and people aged over 65. Discounted tickets of €7 are also available for groups. Tickets can be booked at lumenatwicklow.eventbrite.ie.