Katy is working with a team consisting of researchers Ciara Moynihan and Gülfem Cevheribucak, dance artist Roberta Ceginskaite, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Vanessa Grasse, and visual artist Mike O’Brien, with co-ordination and communications support from Emer Casey.

The group are working in partnership with local Limerick communities in Moyross, Croom and the city centre to break down barriers to accessing climate change literature by transforming it into the formats of hearing, seeing and moving. As part of the research, workshops in the communities are taking place across the year.

This is a conversation with Katy and Emer summarising the project to date.

Emer: How did the project come about?

Katy: The project evolved from my experience listening to presentations about climate and feeling quite far away from it and feeling like I couldn’t quite understand it in a fast-paced presentation format where I needed to sit still and listen. I feel like I need to learn in a different way and couldn’t access the information because of that.

Coming away from it, I was then thinking about the communities I work with and how other people might be feeling the same as me, and perhaps we can use Dance and Creativity to find new ways of learning about climate and to access that information that is often within written text and paperwork. That, for me isn’t something that I will be able to sit down and understand and learn about unless someone else can explain it to me.

From there, how did the project develop?

It took a while to develop the idea and to realize that the key is looking at it simply, ‘simple and complex’, I feel like that’s the constant interlink. How can we look at how we can simplify and break down academic work into new creative ways of experiencing so that we can feel and learn. It came about by forming a team; both an artist team and a research team. We looked at how we could find a creative process and the method together to be able to transform climate literacy into different ways of describing, hearing, and moving in a creative process using dance and visual arts.

Maybe you might speak a little bit about artists in the team, and what they do in the workshops and in the community sessions.

I’m working closely with Ciara Moynihan, who bring her skills in regenerative research, organisational development and sustainability. Ciara’s been brilliant engaging the participants and can look at the project from an overall ‘zoom in’ and ‘zoom out’ perspective. She can look at the impact the project is making because she has a lot of experience in evaluating work and seeing how we can integrate sustainable practices.

We’ve also been working with Mike O’Brien, a visual artist. Mike has been visually capturing the movement and dance in the workshops in a way that is very in the moment. Also on the creative team are dance artist Roberta Ceginskaite, researcher Gülfem Cevheribucak, and dance/multidisciplinary artist Vanessa Grasse.

We’ve also been meeting different people and communities on the project, including groups from Moyross, Croom and the city centre, and it’s been a brilliant way to collaborate on the research we’re doing. At the end of the year, we will invite these communities to see some of the results and findings from the project at Limerick City Gallery of Art, and in Dance Limerick, as the culmination of this whole year long project.

You mentioned the communities you’re working with, Moyross, Croom and Dance Limerick and the city. You might just talk a little about how those groups came together.

These are community groups that we had previously started a collaboration with at Dance Limerick, and we wanted to delve into those relationships for this project. We’re working with a group of older people at Croom Family Resource Centre on Tuesday afternoons.  We’re engaging with participants in the indoor space and outdoors in the local park just a few minutes away.

We’re also connecting with the Moyross community at Moyross Community Hub on Thursday mornings. We’re linking with Limerick and Moyross Sports Partnership, and it’s been great to get to know this group more and to see it grow from a smaller group into a much larger group of people filling the whole entire hall! They are a group of older adults as well.

Finally, we’re working with the Dance Limerick community and those living in the city centre and surrounding areas. These workshops are held specifically in the evening so that people can come after work. That means we are engaging over 18s all the way up to no upper age limit, and it’s a really lovely diverse group.

It’s good to mention at this point that the invitation to join the workshops is open to all. We are supporting individuals with additional needs and disabilities with receiving access support (This has included Irish sign language, arranging 1-1 support, creating easy read workshop materials etc). The workshops are about meeting individuals own learning and experience journey, where they are and where their needs are, and researching together how we can all learn, understand and engage in this creative climate project.

We are working together to define new ways of experiencing dance. Which includes visual aspects, heard aspects, and tactile aspects, as well as information that is text or verbal. We’re conscious of always looking at things from a wider angle and different perspectives.

What has the response been like from the groups?

I smile because at first it was challenging to look at! Thinking, what is the link that that dance has with climate action? And what is the link with access within this? But it’s been absolutely beautiful to see participants individual journeys.

In Croom it’s been amazing to see the curiosities develop, the questions forming of how climate and dance links together and for participants to feel and experience to reach their own views about that, and to realize that impact for themselves. And across all groups, I think there’s a sense of independence within the workshops, in terms of the research, movement exploration and visual expression, which is helping individuals to create their own interests, and desire to care about climate action.

In Moyross, it’s been beautiful to see the group develop in size as we said, going from about 10 participants to 25, and seeing how impactful it has been for them to move and to trust themselves moving. For some, there might perhaps be a fear of falling or of not being able to do something. But delving straight in and moving their bodies, and not worrying about it and feeling the benefits has brought a sense of togetherness by being part of a group. It shows the impact of learning together as a group rather than just by yourself.

Personally, it’s so rewarding seeing how the project has brought dance and movement back into their lives, and how it’s brought a sense of enjoyment within nature, within your garden or even your walk to the community centre. It shows your experience outdoors changing and that you’re developing a new relationship with nature. That is affecting smaller decisions in the everyday and particularly with their imagination, that is how you can imagine being outdoors, through moving indoors! That can be really impactful on well-being.

My final question is how the project has changed or evolved since you first conceived it, is it where you thought it would be now? Does it look different?

I think it’s on similar track, but maybe a track right next to the original idea, it’s at the next door neighbour’s house! Because before, it was all in my mind, and it’s developed now with the whole team and all of the participants, as they make up that team as well. Of course it can’t stay on my track because it involves everyone, so we shifted.

It’s been amazing to see what each of the community groups in the different places with different people need, and for us to be able to notice and reflect on that. To be able to develop the creative process with that in mind.

With the Dance Limerick community, we are focusing on the creative process, and using audio description to describe movement. We’re looking at how we can be in a deep sense of imagination, with using nature and movement, and how we can capture that visually and through audio description.

With the Croom group, we’re focusing on creating an outdoor performance experience together. We’ve created that indoors and outdoors. Using our conversations and storytelling around what inspires them in nature and what is local to them, what they care about.

In Moyross, we’ve been exploring the outdoors, indoors through imagination. We’ve really been focusing on the link between the body and nature, and how that feels and how that develops trust and confidence and a sense of togetherness and community.

Thank you Katy!

To hear an audio version of this interview, click here.