NEWS

• Brussels Summer Series - 4 workshops

• Online Coach for the Handstand Factory since November 2023

• Fundraiser Handstands for Palestine Workshop, Saturday March 2nd, The Movement Studio, Dublin

This Workshop is now over but the link to the Fundraiser is still accessible. Please consider contributing in aid of the Gaza Women’s Yoga & Circus Hub.

• “Fleeting” at the HAT FAIR FESTIVAL 2023, July 1st, Winchester, UK

Seve Feathers’ show “Fleeting” was presented at The Hat Fair Festival in July 2023 after a Covid-related cancellation the previous year.

In this 30-min solo show, created with artistic director and co-choreographer Megan Kennedy (Junk Ensemble) and which premiered at Spraoi Festival 2021, Seve continues to explore the intersections of dance and circus through artistic processes on embodiment. “Fleeting” seeks to make visible the intangible. A performer, in a poetic and eerie world, applies powdered chalk onto her skin. Through details and contrasts, circus and dance are redefined in a search for the mesmeric and uncompromised truths and intentions of the body. In a whirlwind of striking imagery and atmospheric soundscape, the performer connects with the audience in a pact of rawness anchored in a compelling ritual in the search the ephemeral, absurd and cyclical; the echoes, trails and traces of the human experience.

Director & Co-choreographer: Megan Kennedy

Assistant Director: Lucia Kickham

Performer & Co-choreographer: Seve Feathers

Music Composer: Peter Power

Lighting Designer: Blue Hanley

Costume Designer: Sarah Foley

Creation funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and supported by Dance Ireland. Hat Fair tour supported by Culture Ireland.

• Work-in-development at the Experimental Circus Award Showcase at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, at 8 pm on July 29th, 2023

Early research, photos by Monika Palova

The Experimental Circus Award is a new initiative directed by artist Emily Aoibheann and funded by the Arts Council of Ireland to facilitate intellectually engaged, experimental circus practice among Irish and Ireland based artists. The award recognises the authority of the artist as distinct from institutional, government and corporate authority.

Alongside two brilliant artists, Monika Palova and Aoife Kavanagh aka Lunar Tzu, who have each also presented their work, Seve had the exciting and invaluable opportunity to present an excerpt of “Fleshed” as well as two other sequences of early-stage work-in-development.

“Fleshed” at the Five Lamp Festival 2023, photos by Aisha Visuals

“Fleshed“ is a mesmerising and poetic exploration of the imaginational and emotional potential emerging from the relation and collaboration between a body, a large piece of fabric, time and space. A detailed and committed discovery of the properties of the fabric prompts the performer's body to move, balance and contort, creating unexpected and subtle images offering themselves to the audience's imagination for interpretation and associations. "Fleshed" gently invites the audience to reflect and share a compelling journey of renewed curiosity for the seemingly mundane, an unsuspected opening into a world where the intangible becomes visible.

"Fleshed" is the result of a solo research on creative processes, embodiment, authenticity in movements and on stage through circus, dance and visual arts. The creative methodology developed with the support of the Experimental Circus Award and combined with the explorations and learnings of the 3-month Artistic Development Course in DOCH (guided by Ben Richter and other expert impulse givers at SKH, Stockholm, from September to December 2022 ), allowed Seve to create the basis of “Fleshed” along with two more sequences of work.

Currently in development, “Fleshed“ exists as a 14-min or a 5-min piece suitable for a blackbox theatre or an unconventional indoors performing space such as an art gallery or a museum. It has interesting potential for durational work and is looking for opportunities to be developed further on that front.

Filmed and edited by Darya Efrat.

Music: "Can Emptiness Be Filled?" by Gustavo Santaolalla

• Handbalance & Flexibility Tutor as part of BOOST, Dublin Circus Project, September to December 2023

PAST PERFORMANCES

“Fleeting” - WORLD PREMIERE at SPRAOI FESTIVAL 2021, Waterford, Ireland

“Fleeting” seeks to make visible the intangible. A performer, in a poetic and eerie world, applies powdered chalk onto her skin. Through details and contrasts, circus and dance are redefined in a search for the mesmeric and uncompromised truths and intentions of the body.

“The Spaces We Hear” by Feathers Ensemble - WORLD PREMIERE at SPRAOI FESTIVAL 2021 (commission work)

In “The Spaces We Hear”, three artists look for space and connection with one another and with the audience, suspending time with poetry, music and movement in a compelling bespoke circus and dance site-specific performance.

Irish Premiere of “In the City Still” by Feathers Ensemble at Spraoi 2019, Waterford, Ireland

“In the City Still” is a completely unique site-responsive promenade performance exploring the relations between the body and urban spaces, uncovering true stories and historic gems through acrobatics, handbalancing, contortion and live music in strikingly poetic imagery. Debuted as a solo performance by Seve Feathers at the Limerick Fringe 2018, it was developed as a group performance in residency at Spoffin (NL) in 2018.

About Feathers Ensemble

Feathers Ensemble is a contemporary dance and circus company of three striving to create a genuine connection with the audience through compellingly raw and moving performances using acrobatics and live music in site-specific minalistic sets. Feathers Ensemble was founded in 2018 by Seve Feathers and joined by collaborators Judenald Marcus Penders and Nicola Moran. The company has toured in Ireland and internationally (England, Scotland, The Netherlands).

Seve Feathers (She/Her) a Dublin-based image-maker using circus (handbalancing) and embodiment to make the invisible tangible. As an award-winning performing artist and director, Seve creates non-verbal striking imagery of a poetic nature in relation to existential or societal and psychological topics with a view to provoking thoughts and harnessing cathartic and tranformative vulnerability on stage.

Judenald Marcus Penders (They/Them) is a performer, a creator, a commentator. A philosopher, poet, and musician, they aim to facilitate a deeper understanding of the world and of humanness through art, creating performances that foster and develop intimate connections with audiences.Themes of interest in their most recent work include identity, gender, and relationships - as they relate to who we are as people.

Nicola Moran (She/Her) is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist aerialist, contortionist and contemporary jeweller with particular interest in sculpture. Nicola draws inspiration from the alchemical explorations of female surrealists and applies this to the framework of her own artistic disciplines, circus arts and fine and applied arts. Website: www.nicolamoranart.com