Oona Doherty is a dance artist based in Northern Ireland. Though relatively new on the choreography scene, she’s developed a mature choreographic voice. Her work features sparse, powerful movement with a socially conscious edge. As a dancer, she worked with Dutch company T.R.A.S.H., whose punk, art and physical theatre influences made a great impact on her. Doherty has been on associate artist schemes at The MAC Belfast and Lyon’s Maison de la Danse, and she is a Reveal Artist with Prime Cut Productions. Her solo work Hope Hunt won a Total Theatre award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017.
Hard To Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer looks behind the masks of violence and machismo to the inner lives of Belfast hard men and strong women. Featuring professionals and non-professionals, it presents solos from Doherty herself, a warrior-like hip hop dance group, and a choreographed wrestling match for a male duet. Using rich, sometimes unsettling imagery from Belfast street life and religious ritual, and set inside a massive, gleaming cage, it contrasts shocking power with meditative stillness. It has been performed in Belfast, Dublin, Paris, Berlin and Lyon.
Hard To Be Soft is in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. The British Council’s biennial Edinburgh Showcase is the single biggest opportunity for UK theatre companies to introduce their work to international promoters. The programme comprises new work that represents the very best of contemporary theatre and dance, reflecting the breadth and diversity of British performing arts. The 2019 Edinburgh Showcase takes place between Monday 19-Saturday 24 August 2019.
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