Sadly Company B has come to an end for now. Many thanks to all who supported Ciaran and the group over the years.
Ciaran hopes to offer some more dance experiences to boys in the coming year 2021-2022, but how this will happen will be very much Covid dependent. If you wish to contact Ciaran then you can email him:- dancecompanyb@gmail.com
Final Piece - Dilemma 2018
Last Choreographic Project - Bridges Sept 16 to Oct 28 2018
Company B were back in action filming with Laois Youth Dance Ensemble
Get in touch with us onFacebook or feel free to Contact Company B. (dancecompanyb@gmail.com). There's no audition so remember that we are BOYS WHO DANCE and we really enjoy it!
Company B gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of Dance Ireland, the umbrella organization for dance in Ireland.
What We've Been Up to Lately
2017
We completed our piece, Django, back in February and performed it at the Laois Dance Platform in Portlaoise, Unanimous in Belfast and in the Noise Moves event in the Civic, Tallaght . Then we took it to U.Dance 2017 in Birmingham which was a fantastic experience.
Here's the performance we gave at the Birmingham Hippodrome on July 16th.
2016
Playing With Fire - choreography project
Our first choreography project from Sept 17 to Oct 29. Every Saturday from 3 to 6pm we worked
on material for a piece entitled Playing With Fire. The piece is about the importance of risk in our lives helping us to grow and experience new things.
May 14 we were in the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise for Laois Dance Platform, our final performance before the summer. We did our piece, Faith'n'Begorrah and also some solos and duets the lads had been developing. Ben performed his solo Supper. Josh performed Kathisophobia which is a fancy word for a fear of sitting down. Dean and Fionn performed Souls which Dean and Michael had developed. We were delighted too to be performing with Laois Youth Dance Ensemble in the piece we developed over a few months in collaboration with their dancers and choreographer Erica Borges.
On April 24 we performed Faith'n'Begorrah again in Noise Moves at the Civic Theatre, Tallaght. It went really well and again the audience respsonse was very encouraging.
On March 20 we travelled to Belfast again to take part in the youth dance event Unanimous, organized by DU Dance. We performed our new piece, which is called Faith'n'Begorrah. It's about being Irish and was really well received.
2015
Company B had a fantastic weekend of youth dance in Belfast. Friday Sept. 18th we danced in Writers Square as part of Culture Night.
OnSaturday 19th we had a great masterclass with Elisa Macauley in Stranmillis College and then that night we performed in the very lovely Theatre At The Mill in Newtownabbey. We were on a programme with some fantastic youth dance companies and had the pleasure of seeing National Youth Dance of Scotland do their thing.
A great time was had by all.
On May 17th Company B & Friends happened for the second time in Axis, Ballymun. Laois Youth Dance Ensemble joined us on the night as well as about eighty students
from North Bay Educate Together National School.
2014
November 15th - we performed alongside Dublin Youth Dance Company in a Dance Ireland Open House in Dance House. We performed a revived section of the Blitz Kids piece we did in 2013 as well as a new short piece using the Montagues and Capulets theme from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.
November 16th we performed Push'n'Shove in the Helix with the Montagues and Capulets section added in.
And our film School Rush is now available online. Here it is.
June 29th - We performed in the Irish Youth Dance Festival in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire. Reaction to Push'n'Shove was again very positive and this seems to be a strong piece for us to bring forward.
May 17th - we screened our film School Rush for friends and families of Company B. It was a really pleasant gathering and great to see the finished product together.
April 6th - We performed in the Noise Moves festival in the Civic Theatre, Tallaght. We performed our new piece Push'n'Shove, which explores the whole idea of how rough boys can be with each other both physically and verbally.
2013
We shot our film 'School Rush' over the weekend of December 14th and 15th. You can see it here on Facebook.
Here's the Video of us working on creating material for School Rush our dance film.
Our end of year show, or end of five years show took place in the Axis theatre in Ballymun on June 2nd - "Company B & friends". We were joined by four dancers from Dynion, a Welsh all male dance company.
Our new dance performed for this show was Blitz Kids The piece looks at the experience of children evacuated from cities during WW2
On May 2nd Company is took part in the NORTH BAY DANCE DAY for the fourth year in a row.The day of celebration of dance finishes off four weeks of workshops during which the children create dances and it has been great to have the boys go and show their dances every year.
At the moment we're putting in an application with Sibéal Davitt and Gavin Fitzgerald to the Young Ensemble Scheme in the hope that we can make a dance film in September. It will be about the experience all children know of travelling to school.
Here's the video we made with Gavin and Sibéal as part of our application.
So far this year we have performed at the Helix in Dance Platform. For that performance we revived our Pirate Fantasia.
Then on March 24th we performed as part of the LiFT Festival at Axis in Ballymun. For this we did Cartopia in the carpark under the Civic offices.
Next big occasion is the Company B & Friends in Axis, Ballymun on June 2nd.
2012
We've been preparing for the Sonraigh dance festival in Wexford. During rehearsals TG4 came and watched for a bit and we featured on the
Nov 22nd programme Imeall.
On April 23rd Company B performed Cartopia in an underground carpark. The piece was our most ambitious to date and was very well received.
We performed an edited version of this piece in the Helix on June 16th and then as part of the Irish Youth Dance Festival in Dun Laoghaire on June 30th.
. _ . _ . _
Company B - the story so far.
2011
The Open House on Saturday, June 11th was a great success. Both pieces enthusiastically received by the audience and new members were great in their first properly public performance.
We danced in the North Bay Dance Day on April 14th and showed the work in progress Copycat piece which we were getting ready for the June 11th Open House.
We travelled to the Sonraigh Youth Dance Festival in Wexford on Saturday, Feb. 12th and had a fantastic day. It was great to see other youth dance groups and the work they're doing. As usual we were the only all male group and also the youngest.
The piece we performed is called Labour of Love Lost and it examines the nature of work in people's lives over time. It was really well received by the audience and other dance groups.
2010
June of 2010 was a busy time. We performed in an Open House at Dance House on Saturday 12th. Then on the 17th we took part in the Dance Day celebration in North Bay school.
On the 26th of June we performed in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire as part of the Irish Youth Dance Festival. Our piece Grumpy Old Men was very well received - yet again we were the only all male group as well as being the youngest. The following day we took part in Dublin Youth Dance Company's Atelier sharing day. In the morning we did an African fusion workshop and then in the afternoon we performed our other piece Wound to Wound, which you can see in the clip below.
2009
Pirate Fantasia - Dance House. June 13th 2009
The big event of 2009 was the first public performance of the group during the Open House on June 13th, 2009 in Dance House. On the day we performed a seven minute piece called A Pirate Fantasia, to music from the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean (see video clip below). The piece was divided into five short sections - each one representing a brief glimpse of the turmoil created by marauding pirates. We also had a small group of four dancers join two older guest dancers in piece called Heximento. Both pieces were very well received by the dance community and parents alike.
Later, in December, Company B was invited by Dublin Youth Dance Company to take part in an open house presentation for which we revived our pirate piece. This was a great day, with the company meeting young people from other youth dance companies and participating in a dance workshop. The reaction to the pirate piece was again very enthusiastic.
2008
The Company beginnings.
Phase One, which began in February
2008, was a series of workshops and classes which familiarized the boys with
contemporary dance. They learned
warm up exercises and stretches. They also learned to improvise and create their own movement phrases.
Phase Two was a continuation of
workshops and classes but also began work on a a video project called Blitz Kids, which looked at the experiences of children evacuated from major cities during the Second World War and which was shown in Dance House on May 24th
The Reason for Company B
In Ireland boys have long been in
a minority in dance. In other parts
of the world dance is seen as a core cultural activity and frequently a
particularly masculine one. This
has not been the case in Ireland or in Europe in general.
Company B aims to create a time
and space in which young Irish males may dance. It emphasises the idea of dance as a normal and enjoyable
activity for boys.
The Boys
The company was initially opened
to boys in 3rd and 4th class in primary school ie. 8 and 10
yrs. old. Years have passed and there is now a core group of young teens and one 20 year old. If you have a son in the 8 - 12 yrs. age category who might be interested please feel free to contact the company.
Company B is a not for profit
venture. There is a nominal fee
for participants which is used to cover the cost of expenses, such as t-shirts,
costumes etc.
The Founding of Company B
Ciaran Gray has been a primary
school teacher, a dance teacher and choreographer for nearly thirty years. He did his first dance class at the age
of twenty one and regrets the lateness of his start in an activity that has
been such a source of enjoyment and satisfaction.
Over the years Ciaran has been
heavily involved in youth theatre and dance, working for The Dance Council of
Ireland and the National Association for Youth Drama.
He completed a Masters in
dance at the University of Limerick in 2007. His thesis was entitled Boys Don´t Dance - a statement that he
believes is, sadly, somewhat true of Ireland and it is with this in mind that
he set up Company B.
Every Saturday 3 - 5 pm.
@
Dance House, Liberty Corner,
Foley St. Dublin.
(150m from Connolly
Station - down Talbot St. - 1st Right and then Right again.)
