Danae Wollen

Danae Wollen
17 February to 5 April 2025

During this residency I aim to reconnect with my practice after a period of maternity leave. I will start afresh, both revisiting aspects of my old practice while also making time and space for new ideas and movement to flow from a different body and mind (the postpartum body and mind).

My work is influenced greatly by my everyday life, when I give myself those moment to reflect and let my body move the way it feels. Without specific intent, but to allow movement to come unhindered, in the safe space of the studio.

I hope to use my practice during these sessions to fully understand how my body and mind have changed since becoming a mother and to use this knowledge to create new work/performance material that can engage with other mothers/parents as well as varied audiences. It would also help me to design movement workshops geared towards mothers as a new group to work with in the community.

Danae Wollen is a contemporary circus performer, with specialisations in floor acrobatics, equestrian theatre and aerial. She takes particular interest in creating stripped back performances, incorporating elements of physical theatre and dance into her current practice. She has performed with a number of Irish companies and from 2016-2018 spent two years learning and exploring contemporary circus at the Rogelio Rivel school of circus arts in Barcelona.

She is always seeking ways to merge variations of art forms; circus with live music, storytelling through movement, sculpture as a backdrop to theatre. Recent creative collaborations with musician Samuel Arnold Keane have produced a new performance piece for younger audiences; ‘Where Seaweed Dances’ is a melange of circus, movement and live music, with a focus on creating an imaginative and visual oceanic ambience.

Her work as an acrobatic and aerial teacher for all ages has included time at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick, at the National Circus Festival of Ireland and at the Dublin Circus Project.

Instagram: danaecircusartist