Ériu is a contemporary Irish dance company established by Donegal native, dance scholar and choreographer Breandán de Gallaí, following a celebrated career that included a seven-year stint as the principle dancer in Riverdance.

Na Mic Ua gCorra is Ériu's youth company branch; this July they will perform Fág do Lorg | Ná Fág Lorg (Leave your Trace | Leave no Trace), a site-specific piece on Gola Island as part of this year's Earagail Arts Festival.

Na Mic Ua gCorra bring Fág do Lorg | Ná Fág Lorg
(Leave your Trace | Leave no Trace) to Gola Island in Donegal

We asked Breandán for his choice cultural picks...

FILM

I love a bit of dystopia!

When I was very young I happened upon a film – A Boy and His Dog – probably on RTÉ, as that would have been the only channel we had. The protagonist wanders a post-apocalyptic wasteland with his dog. One of the 'highlights' is when he comes across a subterranean, ‘small-town America’ biosphere community run by the ‘Committee’, and although seemingly gleeful, is a tyrannical dictatorship engage in electroejaculation and artificial insemination for reproduction, denying its citizens of sexual pleasure, amongst other unsavory things.

I loved its creepy amusement park aesthetic, marching bands and megaphones spouting positivity, yet with an overall subtext of nihilism.

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This sort of thing really resonates with me and, if I’m honest, appears in many of my works, for example: The Village explores the nature of reality; we presented our interpretation of Lorca’s House of Bernardó Alba through a Queer lens; we set Salóme (Oscar Wilde’s classic) in a contemporary context where the principal characters were ‘birthed’ out of red boiler suits with the implication of ‘there-for-the-love-of-god-go-I’; and even our recent comedy, Countless Cathleens, took me by surprise. I hadn’t intended on any serious messages coming through, but somehow the ending was quite unsettling and spooky.

MUSIC

Music is very central to my creative process and I find that, rather than consuming new releases and exploring emerging artists, I tend to get in deep to the music at hand, listening to it over and over and being absorbed into it to find new insights and inspiration.

I’m very fond of Kate Bush and Bjork, and return to their huge catalogue of songs regularly, even just to get the ball rolling in the studio.

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BOOK

I find it hard to sit down to read a book these days. With my work at the University of Limerick I have a lot of reading to do, including difficult academic books for research and lots of written work from my students to correct. But I did come across a book recently that I’m surprised I missed as a teenager. A friend living in France, whose son had it on his English curriculum, thought I would like it. In keeping with my propensity for dark nightmarish worlds and stories, I found The Giver by Loïs Lowry to be a real page-turner. Being a young adult’s book it was easy to read, but very though-provoking. There was a film made of the book, starring Meryl Streep, but it did leave out some of the harsher, oppressive, and grittier elements which was a shame.

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THEATRE

Ireland has an abundance of amazing theatre companies producing great work and it’s hard to pick one thing.

I grew up in Gaoth Dobhair in the 70s and 80s and there was a rich amateur theatrical society based in Amharclann Ghaoth Dobhair. Also at the time, my secondary school Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola could boast its golden age in terms of the arts, and although I wasn’t the star performer, and far from it, it was incredible to be part of what was being produced and to witness different ways of making performance work. All of this gave me a great love for the theatre.

I got to see Olwen Fouére in Steven Berkoff’s Salomé in The Gate in the early 90s and loved everything about it from the black tie formal costumes to the set designed by Robert Ballagh. I guess subconsciously it made me want to do a version at some stage myself.

TV

I usually watch cookery programmes (as I eat) and the news on mainstream TV, but I have been streaming Seinfeld from the first ever episode for the past year and I find it still very laugh-out-loud funny. I was on tour as a dancer when it first aired and I missed loads of episodes, so following it in chronological order now is very satisfying. It is very good!

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GIG

The last major gig I saw was the São Paulo Dance Company at Bord Gáis Theatre. They relied only on an amazing lighting design to animate the stage and the dancers were just incredible.

I used to go to Sadler’s Wells in London every December with my late partner, Declan. He’d buy tickets for the latest Matthew Bourne production because he knew that seeing Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake when it first premiered was transformative for me as a choregrapher.

I hope to start this tradition again.

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ART

Aisling Drennan is an abstract expressionist from Doolin working in London. She was an professional Irish dancer with Riverdance and is a good friend. I’ve a number of her paintings.

RADIO

I’m a bit of an insomniac and getting a full night’s sleep can be a challenge, so I often replay Kieran Cuddihy’s show on Newstalk in the middle of the night.

My favourite way to unwind is to cook dinner whilst listening to Arena (which is a great way to keep up with everything that is happening in the arts in the country), followed by The John Creedon Show. John just always seems to play the music that I want to hear right now.

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TECH

I’m very bad with tech!

That said, I think YouTube is just fantastic because there I find an explanation for everything I don’t understand, a method to do all the things I cannot do, and musical inspiration for projects that I am researching.

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THE NEXT BIG THING...

I’m too old to be cool and clued in enough to know. I think I’ll be cheeky and say: hopefully Ériu Dance Company will be one of them!!

Na Mic Ua gCorra and Ériu present Fág do Lorg | Ná Fág Lorg (Leave your Trace | Leave no Trace) on Gola Island, off the coast of Gweedore in Co. Donegal, on Saturday 27th July 2024 as part of this year's earagail Arts Festival - find out more here.