June 2017 ‘WILDFLOWERS Encounter (Casadh)' performed by Maureen Fleming

Wildflowers Encounter (Casadh)’, by internationally acclaimed choreographer and dance artist Maureen Fleming, will be presented at 8pm on 30 June 2017 in the O’Donoghue Centre, NUI Galway. Featuring original music by composer and musician Colm Mac Con Iomaire, this presentation is the first ‘encounter’ between these ground-breaking artists and is the culmination of Fleming’s Fulbright Scholarship in Ireland.

The first 'Encounter (Casadh)' in Ireland will be presented at the O’Donoghue Centre at NUI Galway by producer Marianne Ní Chinnéide, Perfoming Arts Manager at NUI Galway with direction, choreography and performance by Maureen Fleming, music composition and performance by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, videography by Colm Hogan, light and visual design by Christopher Odo. Louis de Paor, Director of the Centre for Irish Studies, will conduct an interview with the artists following the ‘Encounter (Casadh) presentation. 

In lyrical, sculptural transcendence, Maureen Fleming invents surreal movement poetry that changes how we think of the human body. Fleming’s new monomyth: ‘Wildflowers’ is a series of vision poems inspired by the mythology surrounding the eternal, otherworld feminine of Ireland. The completed work will premiere at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York City in autumn of 2018 and the O’ Shaughnessy in the Twin Cities in spring 2019.

Fleming has spent a semester at the Centre for Irish Studies and at Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway on her Fulbright Scholar’s Award, where she taught her original dance form and studied sean-nós traditions of song and dance, developing new work incorporating aspects of Irish mythology and folklore.

Fleming's ‘Wildflowers’ is a three-stage international collaborative project between choreographer and dance artist Maureen Fleming and composer and musician Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Research and development will begin with support from the Irish Arts Council Traditional Music Commission and the Fulbright Commission this summer and will develop through an ‘Encounter (Casadh)’ process where elements of set, light, music and choreography are staged and open to the public at various times and venues.

Encounter (Casadh) is made possible with support from the Irish Arts Council Traditional Music Commission; Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs through the Fulbright Commission; Centre for Irish Studies and Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway; Arts in Action; and Galway City Council.

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