“Gut-wrenching, soul-stirring, perspective-shifting, devastating, beautiful, limitless. If you believe art making is a necessary and radical act you must see this work.”
— Michelle Dorrance (Dorrance Dance)
A rapidly rising star in contemporary dance, Northern Irish choreographer Oona Doherty unflinchingly taps into personal and collective fears for her largest work yet. Navy Blue pits a group of 12 dancers against a destructive algorithm — generating a thrilling, in-your-face mash-up of visceral movement, spoken word poetry, and political candor. Divided into two parts, this expansive new work contrasts Rachmaninoff’s lush romanticism with the high-energy pulsations of Jamie xx, the hierarchies of dance with creative freedom, and individual people with the immensity of the universe. The scope of the conflict expands from the world of dance to the broader context of history, politics, and society.
Don’t miss your chance to see why Doherty’s distinctive choreography, refreshing wit, and fearless attitude prompted The Boston Globe to call her “one of the most original and provocative voices of her generation.”
About Oona Doherty
Oona Doherty is a Northern-Irish choreographer based in Belfast. She studied at St. Louise’s Comprehensive College in Belfast, the London Contemporary Dance School, the University of Ulster and LABAN. She earned an undergraduate and a master’s degree in the Disciplines of Contemporary Dance. Since 2010, she has worked with several companies, including: T.r.a.s.h. dance/performance group (Netherlands), Abattoir Fermé (Belgium), Veronika Riz (Italy), Emma Martin/United Fall, Enda Walsh and Landmark Productions (Ireland).
She has won many awards for her choreographic work, which includes: Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015), a 30-minute solo that won her the Best Performer Award at the Tiger Dublin Fringe (2016), the Aerowaves award (2016/17), the Total Theatre Dance Award and The Place Dance Award at the Edinburgh Fringe (2017); Hard to be Soft – A Belfast Prayer (2018), which won the Best Dance Show 2019 award from the English daily “The Guardian”; Lady Magma – The Birth of a Cult (2019).
She has collaborated on music videos with the Rubber Bandits, Girl Band, and Jamie XX. She participated in the digital Dancing Nation festival promoted by BBC Arts and Sadler’s Wells with Hope Hunt (2020). Carla Holmes made a documentary about her artistic work titled Welcome To A Bright White Limbo, which won the Best Short Irish Film Award and a special mention at Tribeca in New York (2020).
In 2021, she won the prestigious Venice Biennale Silver Lion in Dance, an award given to an emerging artist considered the most promising in their field. Navy Blue is her first major choreographic work since receiving the honor.
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