Nóra Ní Anluain Fay, choreographer, performer and the Artistic Director of NAF Dance, introduces their latest production Ham Sandwiches and Discipline, a comedic, contemporary dance duet about the world of the GAA, playing at the Dublin Fringe Festival this September.
During an All-Ireland quarter final in 2022, I witnessed a new movement language being born, deriving from the one-and-only Pat Spilllane. How he theatrically weaved his hands with every exclamation point he uttered, felt as though Pina Bausch or Martha Graham were in the room. I was able to picture a whole dance world unfolding from his mere hand gestures, which led to the beginning of my new show Ham Sandwiches and Discipline. This made me trust that there was something in the raw theatricality of sport calling to be explored, which gave way to NAF Dance’s latest work.
We spent July 2023 in Uillinn Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co Cork, diving headfirst into what it might mean to fuse dance and the GAA. As someone who has never played the game myself but remains an obsessive spectator, we collaborated with the O’Donovan Rossa Junior Ladies team to dissect what a player experiences on the pitch. We continued this exploration the following month at Galway Dance, to determine what angle the piece was taking on the world it encompasses.
(Pic: Carol Cumins)
While on residency in Dance Ireland in Dublin at the end of 2023, I realised rather than simply depicting play on stage, the work acts as an open letter to ideas of Irishness as a whole, told through the sacred Irish institution that is the GAA.
I moved back to Dublin last autumn after living in the Netherlands for four years studying dance and choreography at Fontys University in Tilburg. In hindsight it was inevitable that I’d feel compelled to make a work that centres around what it means to be Irish, especially when I was questioning what it meant to live in Ireland as an adult for the first time.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Listen: Nóra Ní Anluain Fay talks Ham Sandwiches and Discipline with Ray D'Arcy
So many pivotal moments for me of growing up align with the GAA, from playing or attending school matches, Paul Mescal being a fashion muse or your first taste of going out via a teenage disco at your local club.
Ham Sandwiches and Discipline channels the passionate drive of the GAA, fused with dance, disco and comedy. From mammies' sideline screaming, batty umpires, manic pundits, goblin-like bainisteoirs, to Tayto eating in Croke Park, we delve into what makes this sport a national tradition. While injecting this hive of Irishness with campiness and humour, we glimpse what can shape an Irish identity.
A shorter version of the piece premiered at the Scene and Heard Festival 2024 in Smock Alley Theatre, earlier this year, soundtracked by the likes of Donna Summer, The Pointer Sisters and the majestic words of Pat Spillane and Eddie Brennan. We knew the potential the piece had by how deliciously the audience responded to it.
It was then exhilarating hearing a French audience laugh at jokes about inherently Irish mammies getting their steps in as we took it to the Centre Cultural Irlandais in Paris in April 2024.
We debuted the full-length production at Galway Theatre Festival last May in an Taibhdhearc, which gave us the chance to fully flesh out the world we had created through dance by blending it with text, theatre and film.
It has always been a dream of mine to have a NAF Dance production in the Dublin Fringe Festival programme and I am beyond thrilled that Ham Sandwiches and Discipline, presented in association with The Mermaid Arts Centre, is part of the 2024 edition.
Alongside our beautiful team of creatives, NAF Dance invites you to a camp, comedic showcase of all things Irish - while inviting a whole new audience to the theatre.
Ham Sandwiches and Discipline will be at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray on September 6th and The Lir Academy, Dublin from the 8-11th September, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2024.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
