116% Funded

0%

Target: €3500

100%

€4,070 Raised

Complete

63 Funders

Dance School Tardis

By Deirdre Mulrooney

description

Help us to turn a bright new page in Irish cultural history, celebrating forgotten women artists, and the body – and have your name on the project in early 2013!

You may be familiar with the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), from Doctor Who. Not unlike Tardis, Dance also involves space, time and dimension. So, we propose that our mini-documentary “Dance School Tardis” will move tardis-like between Dublin 1943, and the present.

1943 short film “Dance School”, Ireland’s first dance film has languished, perfectly preserved in the Irish Film Archive for decades. Irish film Industry founder Liam O’Laoghaire made the film with his students to promote the work and ethos of 1940’s Modern Dance Evangelist Erina Brady, in exchange for dance and movement classes she gave to his “Little Dublin Theatre Company”. We’d like to connect this forgotten gem to the present, bringing it out into the light 70 years on…

O’Laoghaire’s extraordinary film captures forgotten Irish-German dance pioneer Erina Brady (1891 – 1961) in action, teaching in her studio, and dancing outdoors, with her pupils. Beautifully shot on rare one-minute reels of b/w 16mm film, as well as an outdoor sequence on colour kodachrome, this was intended to be a promotional film for Brady’s “Irish School of Dance Art” – which thrived in neutral Dublin, during “the Emergency”.

Many of the tiny tots in the film, today in their 70s and 80s are either artists, involved in the Arts, or even teaching “League of Health” Classes – all inspired by Brady’s holistic philosophies of creativity and the body. Stain glass artist Margaret Becker (pictured), for example founded the Leinster Print Studio in Clane, Co. Kildare.

With your help, the short documentary “Dance School Tardis” will highlight these inspirational women, celebrating the body, and reclaiming a forgotten chapter of Irish cultural history. It’ll also celebrate artists who happen to be women - inspirational women who are part of a forgotten cultural legacy.

Producer/Director Deirdre Mulrooney: Deirdre’s documentaries include “Doreen: Telling the Dancer from the Dance” (RTE Lyric FM), and RTE Radio series “Nice Moves” on the history of contemporary dance in Ireland. Her books include “Irish Moves, an illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland” and a book (her PhD), on choreographer Pina Bausch. Deirdre’s research has also featured on RTE Nationwide. For more info: www.deirdremulrooney.com

Camera operator and editor Mia Mullarkey: Mia’s film Halls Without Walls received Honourable Mention for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Galway Film Fleadh, and was selected for numerous film festivals worldwide. She has also created TV commercials and music videos. For more info: www.ishkafilms.com

We would be very grateful for your help to bring this uplifting project to fruition. Every €10 will help us near our funding target, and if you wish, you can have your name in the film credits and online as a micro-philanthropist!  For starters we have lined up screenings at the IFI.  Help make this happen and come and see the finished film in early 2013!


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