Dance studio’s unique collaboration

‘Vertical Nature Base’ (V.N.B.) will see Echo Echo’s Artistic Director Steve Batts and Dan Shipsides set up camp at a beautiful cove near Shroove beach in County Donegal for two weeks. There they will explore climbing not just as a sport but also as a creative activity and how dance and movement relates to climbing and the landscape.

Echo Echo invites interested and intrepid people to join the camp for two weekends of public events at the cove starting September 2. These include discussions, film screenings, climbing, and movement investigation. Overnight camping is optional.

After the two-week residential, Steve and Dan will recreate the camp in Echo Echo’s new premises in Bishop Street as an installation exhibition with performances.

The project is part of Echo Echo’s Into Contact and is funded by Legacy Trust UK’s Connections programme in Northern Ireland. Legacy Trust UK is an independent charity set up to help build a cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Connections is managed by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Dan Shipsides said: “It’s really an experimental process to see what comes out of exploring crossovers and boundaries around dance, climbing, sport and art within a particular environment - neither of these fields have fixed boundaries and with all of them it’s important to think of where they happen and what that location brings to the equation - so here it’s important to experience an environment creatively and with the environment in many ways leading the activity.”

Vertical. Nature. Base. weekend events will take place on Friday, September 2 to Sunday, September 4, and Friday, September 16 to Sunday, September 18, and will be followed by the exhibition opening on Saturday, September 24, which will run until October 1.

For details of the ‘Vertical Nature Base’ project, contact Echo Echo on 028 7130 8883 or email [email protected]. Alternatively visit www.echoechodance.com.