Crystal Cloud by Fiona Quilligan

Award winning choreographer Fiona Quilligan brings a handful of glorious films accompanied by live performance with a superb cast featuring dancers, Olwen Grindley, Yves Lorrhan and Eoin Mac Donncha.

As we journey along the river in a voyage of self-expression, we feel the heat of the sun on a beautiful May day, tremble with excitement under the dappled leaves and soak up nature’s restorative rays. A heron is standing sentinel, mid-river with fluttering feathers. Stoic. Its beady eye looks deep into the shadowy waters seeing images of love, loss and war. We fall into these reflections and dance with passion, fragility and joy. Strong as crystal suspended in time, we live with gratitude for our own freedom and with hope for a more peaceful world.

Sometimes dark, Crystal Cloud reveals the fractured light that spills into our lives as we dance a rainbow of colour. Don't miss this compelling, impassioned and joyous dance work.

About the artist

Fiona Quilligan is award-winning choreographer, born in Dublin, and trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, from 1982-86 she performed with Dublin City Ballet. In 1986, she founded Rubato Ballet, creating original works for the company which received critical acclaim, the Nijinsky medal from Warsaw and AIB Better Ireland Award in Arts and Culture. Fiona received an MA in performance from the University of Limerick. She is a member of Aosdana and a founding member of Dance Ireland. Fiona Quilligan has created many works for Project Arts including Signals, Live Sax, Burnt Brown Flem, Monkey Rib, A Close Shave, Pas de Chat, and Casts and Conversations.  

Her most recent work Ancestor premiered in the Irish Film Institute in 2022, on RTE Player and Digital Arts. It has recently been added to the prestigious catalogue of Filmmakers Coop NYC. Pas de Chat has just been published in Frustrated Writer Volume 2. She recently performed in The Ireland We Dreamed Of by Louise Brangan and Sinead McCann at Smock Alley.

Supported by Aosdana, the company would like to thank Dance Cork Firkin Crane (funded by Arts Council of Ireland), Lab Studios, Dublin City Council, our private sponsors, the artists and creative team, Sean Fingleton, Julia Kent, Paddy O' Mahony, Dylan Holly, Joanna Banks, Anthony Bolton, Moya Ní Éilí and Veronica Quilligan.