Submerging and emerging…women in water…washing and drowning…
Visual Haiku
Walk on Water is an innovative dance theatre piece created by Anne O’Keeffe in collaboration with co-performers Karen Berger, Mahony Maia Kiely, Jillian Pearce and Vanessa Rowell. It is performed in and around a pool and is a magical, lyrical celebration of women’s experience through movement, theatre and song.
Walk on Water reflects on women’s relationship with water from domestic, to sensual to spiritual. It presents this in a series of vignettes, spanning a range of emotions from joy, to sadness, to madness. Each section is constructed in the form of a haiku poem and presented as a ritual, giving the piece a heightened, timeless quality.The audience is taken on a journey of transformation from drowning to buoyancy - where walking on water becomes possible.
Engagement of the Senses
Walk on Water is set in and around a pool, with the water becoming a sixth performer – a symbol of emotion and metaphor for life experience.This intriguing site enhances the performance, making it a unique and memorable audience event. Lighting transforms the pool space, endowing it with a mythic quality. A rippling, grotto effect is created on the surrounding walls, while underwater light allows the water to glow from within.
Live, unaccompanied singing performed by the cast supports the piece. Traditional Celtic songs, including sea-shanties, ‘waulking songs’ and songs for sailing and navigating are used, with additional compositions by cast members. The singing provides an emotional landscape, supported by live percussion by Karen Berger and environmental sound design by Warren Burt.Traditional music and dance are integrated and presented in a vibrant, new context.
Photography by Mark Wilson