"How to deserve a mountain?" is an outdoor, family friendly dance performance originally developed as a site specific work to be performed outdoors with The Brunton Theatre, Scotland. This work premiered in June 2021 with socially distanced audiences.. 

The research for this work has been a passion of mine for the past three years. Its comes from an appreciation of the natural beauty of landscapes in Ireland and a frustration to capture these detailed qualities, textures, colours and shapes in the moving human body. This is a playful exploration of the micro landscapes on the custom-made costume, the meso of the body as a landscape itself and the macro of the body in the landscapes. This dance is a celebration of rugged mountains, the vast sky and dancing in the windy elements. 

This dance solo features an eclectic original track by musician Quee MacArthur and an original costume by Freda by Teo.

This work was commissioned by What Moves You CIC in partnership with The Brunton, supported by Dance Base and Lyra, mentored by Angus Balbernie, and funded by Creative Scotland. An earlier version of this work was developed through the Lighting Design for Dance Project 2021, a professional development initiative between The Lir Academy, Liz Roche Company, Dance Ireland and the Irish World Academy, UL and supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon

Photo credits: Brian Hartley