Boots and Other Myths
Uillinn Dance Season 2025

Boots and Other Myths I Dance Performance by Elaine McCague with Carmel Winters (co-creative devising director)

Sunday 9 November I 7:00pm I Split Bill with Please Break My Heart €15 I BOOKING ONLINE I

Gallery II I 25 mins I

Boots and Other Myths is an interdisciplinary work-in-progress combining aerial dance, performance, and object-based research. At its centre is a female performer, a length of rope, and a pair of heavy work boots. Through movement, tension, and suspension, the piece explores how iconic symbols of labour and masculinity impress themselves on the female body, and how they might be reimagined through the lens of myth, popular culture, and physical play. 

About the Artist/ Company

Elaine Mc Cague has been creating bold and genre-defying performance work since 2014 as co-artistic director of Loosysmokes, an award-winning company known for its immersive, interdisciplinary productions. Notable works include Behind the Dark (2015) and Raven Eyed (2017), both of which toured nationally and internationally to widespread acclaim, each receiving ★★★★★ reviews from The Irish Times. In 2022, Loosysmokes premiered In Rhythms, a major new production at Cork Midsummer Festival and Kilkenny Arts Festival. In recent years, Elaine has developed Detached, a personal strand of experimental work investigating the expressive and symbolic possibilities of the contemporary circus body in a rural context. The first iteration of Detached premiered as part of Uillinn Dance Season in 2023 and continues to evolve through ongoing research at the intersection of circus, dance and film. Elaine’s work, both solo and collaborative, prioritises process, innovation, and cross-disciplinary exchange, and continues to resonate with diverse audiences in Ireland and beyond.

Elaine Mc Cague is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the expressive potential of the contemporary circus body beyond its traditional forms. Her work bends the boundaries between physical performance, visual design, and sound, constructing site-responsive works that challenge genre and convention. In 2017, she was awarded the prestigious Arts Council Next Generation Award in recognition of her innovative approach to performance-making. Since 2014, Elaine has been co-artistic director of Loosysmokes, a company known for its ambitious, genre-defying productions. Drawing from a diverse background in film, writing, production, and extensive training in traditional circus techniques, Elaine’s work seeks to create immersive, high-quality experiences that resonate with both art audiences and the wider public. Since relocating to West Cork in 2020, she has continued to collaborate with local artists and communities, including her role in the creative team behind the annual Jazz Funeral Parade for the Ballydehob Jazz Festival.

Carmel Winters is an award-winning playwright, filmmaker, photographer and performer. Plays include ‘The Maestro and the Mosquita’, (Best Production, Dublin Fringe), ‘The Road to Joe’, ‘B for Baby’, (Abbey Theatre, Irish Times Irish Theatre Award Best Play), ‘The Remains of Maisie Duggan’, ‘Best Man’, ‘Witness’ and others performed at the Abbey Theatre, Everyman Cork, Project Arts Centre Dublin and venues throughout Ireland and beyond.

Carmel is writer and director of two internationally acclaimed feature films, ‘Snap’ (Variety Critic’s Choice Award at Karlovy-Vary International Film Festival) and ‘Float Like A Butterfly’ (Winner of the Fipresci International Critics Prize at Toronto International Film Festival). She’s currently exhibiting ‘The Art of Loss’, an experimental film diary about seeing through love and bereavement, described by Lenny Abrahamson as “wildly original, funny and moving – everyone should see it”.

Carmel is currently writing and directing a new play Cuckoo Time, opening at the Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin this October.

Credits

Performer/ Choreographer – Elaine Mc Cague
Co-creative devising director: Carmel Winters
Lighting and Rigging: Conor Mc Cague

Acknowledgements 

Development supported by the Arts Council and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre