Legitimate Bodies Dance Company was founded in October 2007 as the company in residence at the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, in Birr, Co.Offaly. With the support of Offaly County Council and The Arts Council, they furthered their artistic practise and initiated different dance educational and outreach programmes for children, youth and community, creating a momentum for contemporary dance in the M
idlands. Since their establishment, they toured to various venues in Ireland, Italy and Northern Ireland and they received support from Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy to return to Mexico for two years in a row for a series of performances and workshops. The company was also invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008 to feature in a curated evening of dance with the comedic duo “Hanging in There”, with Damian Punch. Performed at Dance Base, the series of performances was a great success and was critically acclaimed with numerous further international engagements late in 2008 and in 2009 including Aerowaves Dance Festival at The Robin Howard Theatre London, Dance House Limassol, Auditorium Theatre, Rome as well as the European Parliament in Brussels. “Touching Distance”, a full evening work for three women toured the west of Ireland and Mexico with great success last year while the company’s production “R-Ated” was a collaboration with up and coming Dutch choreographer Arno Schuitemaker and was presented at the 2009 Dublin Absolute Festival. In 2010 the company presented their work at Tanzmesse, Dusseldorf, Germany and it was part of the Irish cultural ambassador for Saint Patrick’s celebration in the USA. In 2011 new works developed include a trio created by Darrell Jones, a renowned USA dance maker and a collaborative trio by Nick Bryson, Robin Dingeman and James O’Shea. In the Autum of 2011 the company will be busy touring a new work “Goldilocks zone”, a dance-theatre piece for children, who premiered at the 2010 Edinburg Fringe Festival with great response from the critics and the audience. Film projects include a commission for the RTE “Dance on the box” series with director Luke McManus and a short dance film for TG4 by Mary Keane.
