This solo work explores the importance and need for touch, social interaction and the desire for connection. What stagnates in the body after prolonged periods of loneliness and isolation?
All This Silent Space
In response to these questions, Ailish uses improvisational scores and set material to build a landscape in which she reflects on these ideas and aims to activate both body and senses.
The work is set against a backdrop of droning soundscape and recordings of texts. These texts examine the imagery and thoughts that the process brought to the surface.
The piece had its premiere in 2020 in Black Box Genesis in Vaasa. It was funded by Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet and produced by Regional Dance Center of Ostrobothnia.
The solo was restaged in 2022. This tour was produced by Regional Dance Center of Ostrobothnia.
Trailer
Performance, choreography and sound design: Ailish Maher
Lights: Jakob Löflund
Video and photography: Pádraig Croke
Supported by: Regional Dance Center of Ostrobothnia and Svensk-österbottniska Samfundet
In A Ritual of Care attention is given to the symbolic, the meditative, and the moving body. It explores ways of remembering, liminality and the threshold between life and death. The film offers a perspective on presence and care through the lens of ritual making, where actions, objects, and spaces are brought into focus.
(Short film)
Duration: 8.35 mins
Supported by: Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet & Regional Dance Centre of Ostrobothnia
A Ritual of Care
Directed by: Ailish Maher
Photography: Pádraig Croke
Concept and Movement: Ailish Maher
Sound Design and Editing: Pádraig Croke and Ailish Maher
Trailer