Dance Theatre in Ireland: Revolutionary Moves

This book provides the first critical and contextual study of contemporary and historical dance theatre in Ireland. Since the arrival of the traditional Irish dance spectacular Riverdance in 1994, Irish dance has not only become a topic of global interest, but also a subject of heated debate. The emergence of companies such as CoisCéim Dance Theatre and Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre in the mid-1990s marked an important turning point in dance practice in Ireland that once again provoked a rethinking of the perception of the dancing body and its position within Irish performance culture.McGrath’s study examines how groundbreaking dance theatre works have tackled some of the most urgent and difficult socio-political and cultural questions in Ireland, and how in doing so they have re-imagined seemingly hermetic narratives of oppression and limiting definitions of 'Irish' corporeality. This study provides a timely reading of these revolutionary moves.