Mairéad Vaughan: Uillinn West Cork Dance Artist in Residence 2019
The Art of Attuning: Inner  - Outer - Third Space(s)
January 2019 to November 2020

Please see here for information on classes that Mairéad will be holding. 

Mairéad Vaughan’s dance and choreographic research reflects on how our ‘inner’ sensed experience extends out to influence our ‘outer’ perception and our relationship with our environment. Her choreographic work explores ‘Third Space(s)’ - immersive spaces that elicit a felt, sensed, kinaesthetic or energetic response.

Mairead’s PhD research into the symbiotic interconnectedness of body, mind and environment, has led to the creation of a somatic movement, compositional and performance practice called ‘Attuning’. ‘Attuning’ is designed to cultivate sensory, kinaesthetic and energetic awareness. This practice is informed by principles from Release Contemporary Dance and Choreographic practice, Improvisation and Iyengar Yoga..
 

As part of her 2019 residency, Mairéad collaborated with local visual artist Tomasz Madajczak resulting in: inSkin, a live video, dance, art installation, created for the main gallery space at Uillinn, by dance artist Mairéad Vaughan (Ireland), visual artist Tomasz Madajczak (Poland), visual artist Helle Kvamme (Sweden) and dance artists Lilly Horgan and Charlie Dunne (UK). Mapping the Divide, a dance and art community project exploring the impact of technology on our body, mind, environment. The project resulted in a site-specific performance, as part of Skibbereen Arts Festival 2019.

As part of her 2020 residency, Mairéad will continue to work with Madajcazak to further develop the Mapping project bringing it to Bere Island. They will work in this remote region with a group of primary school children, exploring how the mediums of dance, art and video might reflect specific qualities of space(lessness), time(lessness) and energetic imprints inherent within the region. This project will inform a new dance video installation, to be premiered at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, as part of Skibereen Arts Festival, 29 July to 1 August, 2020. The installation aims to provide a window that opens up a third space - shedding light onto simple innocent qualities of our true nature, while transporting these qualities into a contemporary context. ​ The project is delivered in partnership with Cork County Council.

‘Open Attuning’ workshops take place weekly on Fridays from 10:30am – 12:00 noon, starting February 28 2020 and are open to dancers, artists, performers, somatic therapists and anyone interested in developing new approaches to creating art, and living a more embodied life. Mairead will also facilitate an environmental dance workshop as part of the West Cork Islands Festival Sunday 24 May 2020 and a movement workshop for performers as part of the Fastnet Film Festival, Saturday 23 May 2020. Please book through the festival box office.

Mairead Vaughan graduated with a B.A. from Northern School of Contemporary Dance (UK), an M.A. and an Arts Practice PhD, IWAMD, University of Limerick. Now working as an independent artist, Mairéad co-founded Shakram Dance and Music Company (1999-2014) creating a body of thirteen original choreographic works supported by the Arts Council of Ireland. Her work is multi-disciplinary in nature exploring dance with live voice & sound, video dance, site-specific and installation performance. She is currently interested in creating installation environments that reflect immersive, ephemeral qualities of movement, space and time.

Funded by Arts Council Dance Residency and Cork County Council