CoisCéim Dance Theatre: Sparking Debate | Physical Debates

The SPARKING DEBATE physical debates mark the final event of our major multifaceted ART:2023 project for the culmination programme for the Decade of Centenaries in collaboration with the 2024 St Patrick’s Festival.

With these physical debates, the goal is to take this concept one step further – by staging a discussion where diverse perspectives are debated with and through the body in one or more dance styles – in an artistic experiment to spark new thinking around conciliation, peace-making and what it means to be Irish today. A debate is defined as a “a competition in which teams of people, discuss a subject [a motion] and the team that is judged to make the best argument wins”.

The structure of the debate is competitive. 7 crews will debate 6 topics though an instant composition. Topics will be chosen by extraction on the day to allow a spontaneous physical discussion driven by the dancers involved. All dance styles are permitted and crews will be judged on skill, dynamism & creative response to debate topic

Topics
Each topic/motion is linked to the 5 poems from each province of Ireland that underpin SPARKING DEBATE and are designed to be catalysts for conversation not to discriminate. They are: