Catherine Young is a choreographer, dancer and passionate advocate of human rights and equality. In 2016, she developed The Welcoming Project, a community dance initiative that brings people from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences together to promote integration and social cohesion. Since the first project in Kerry, the initiative has enjoyed huge success locally within the communities with whom it works, nationally and internationally.
The last thing I saw and loved… Lankum live, a magical hour at EP this year and the first time I have heard them live. In addition to being great artists, they took a stance in support of Palestine despite losing international gigs. I respect this.
The book I keep coming back to… Thich Nhat Hahn’s writings. His books have the answers.
I find inspiration in… people, music and books, especially music. I feel music is one of the really positive contributions humans have made to the world.
My favourite film is… I don’t have a favourite or can never think of one. I tend to read more and a lot of non-fiction so when I watch films, I usually want to watch something light or humorous for balance. That said, West Side Story is one I will watch over (or any movie with great dance in it).
My career highlight is… opening the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Palestine in 2017 with Welcoming the Stranger. That trip changed everything for me and confirmed for me the power of dance.
The song I listen to to get in the zone is… anything by Fela Kuti or any of the West African greats: Toumani Diabaté, Salif Keita, Sona Jobarteh. I love music from this part of the world.
The last book I recommended is… The Dawn of Everything – A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I keep recommending it. Maybe it offers hope for the world that things can be different, that there might be an alternative to how things are now based on how we really evolved (not linearly like we think). It’s written by an anthropologist and archaeologist so the theories are backed up by actual evidence versus philosophies.
I never leave the house without… a jacket or jumper. I am always cold – even when I go to Africa to train, I’m the one wearing a jumper.
The piece of work I still think about is… Maguy Marin’s Beckett-inspired dance work MAY B which came to Ireland as part of Dublin Dance Festival in 2021. I think it’s one of the most extraordinary works I’ve ever seen. It was made in 1981, is still touring and is as relevant now as ever. It has stayed with me since.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… be here now (not that I always heed it).
The art that means the most to me is… it’s probably the podcast (if that qualifies?) On Being by Krista Tippet. A show that has really sustained me over the past 20 years, interviews with brilliant humans doing the generative work of our time. It’s always inspiring.
My favourite moment in this show is… the dabke. We have woven in some Palestinian traditional dance which I love and we’ve set it to some music that originally comes from Irish music but set on a more Middle Eastern scale. It’s an offer of solidarity and us coming together. For the Palestinians, dabke is a form of cultural resistance and is so important for their culture. I love that dance holds this important place.
The most challenging thing about being on stage is… I’m not on stage so much anymore, I’m on the other side as a choreographer/director. Maybe that’s the challenging bit? You have to let go and give the work over to the performers. When they come off stage they have a different buzz having gone through the live performance experience.
After a show, I… like to be with friends and the cast.
If I wasn’t a dancer/choreographer, I would… perhaps like to be a yogi or a composer/musician or work in human rights or with animals. I tend to be happiest doing work that is very physical.
The magic of dance/music to me is… being able to go to those places beyond language, those more nuanced grey areas. Dance and music are very good at touching those places. I love the magic of that energetic exchange with an audience, something only live performance can do, where we have this circular exchange, one affecting the other. It’s a very ancient thing and I feel it connects us back to ourselves and to each other.
Catherine Young Dance’s powerful work Floating on a Dead Sea goes on an eight-venue nationwide tour from October 12 to November 2. Find out more here.
Photography by Alaa Aliabdallah.
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