Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus
Oona Doherty
For 2 special shows only, DANCEHOUSE INVITES international superstar Oona Doherty brings her seminal work to Naarm.
Masculinity, testosterone, social class, identity, football allegiance, religion, aggression – the id of the Northen Irish chav is broken down and raised again in Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus.
Oona Doherty’s choreography shatters facades and dismantles stereotypes with vibrancy and nuance. Through speech, movement, and sound the performer mutates and contorts ideas of masculinity, morality and nostalgia. A man who is many men takes the audience with him, his story; a hunt for hope.
“a swaggering, graceful ode to working-class men” – ★★★★ The Guardian (UK)
Choreography Oona Doherty
Performer Sandrine Lescourant AKA Mufasa
DJ and Car Driver Maxime Jerry Fraisse
Technical Supervisor Lisa Marie Barry
Production OD Works
Oona Doherty was born in 1986 in London. She moved to Belfast when she was 10. She studied at St Louise’s comprehensive college in Belfast, The London School of Contemporary Dance, University of Ulster and LABAN London. From 2010 she perfomes with various companies, including: TRASH (NL), Abattoir Fermé (BE), Veronika Riz (IT), Emma Martin/United Fall (ROI), Enda Walsh & Landmark Productions (ROI).
She creates her first solo work Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus in 2016. With this performance, she was awarded the “Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival Best Performer Award” in 2016 and the winner of the “Total Theatre Dance Award” at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and the 1st Audience place and judges 1st place at Reconnaissance in Grenoble in 2017,which was voted “No. 1 British dance performance of 2019” by the Guardian.
In 2019 She created Lady Magma: The Birth of a Cult. That same year, her work will be highlighted at the rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine Saint Denis, (FR).
Doherty’s distinctive and visceral choreography has sparked international attention, earning multiple awards, amazing reviews and prestigious artistic opportunities both in Ireland, Europe and worldwide. She creates intense, compelling works that appeal for societal change. She has forged a wide range of artistic relationships locally and internationally. (Jamie xx, (La)Horde, Luca Truffarelli, John Scott, Girl Band…
In August 2022, she created her first major group piece: Navy Blue for 12 dancers. A ballet with music by Sergei Rachmaninov and original creation by Jamie xx.
In July 2023, Oona Doherty moved to Marseille. The OD Works company also moved.
In 2023/24 she choreographed a piece for London’s National Youth Dance Company. This piece called The Wall for 18 young dancers will premiere at Sadler’s Wells in April 2024.
Oona is currently working on a new piece on the border between dance, theater and performance: Specky Clark – A series of theatrical images. It is due to premiere at the Pavillon Noir in November 2024.
She will be associate artist of the CCN d’Aix-en-Provence – Pavillon Noir, for the 2024/25 season and to Sadler’s Wells London from 2024.
Oona has been awarded with Venice Biennale Silver Lion in 2021. She was one of the Aerowaves 2017 selected artists, an Associate Artist at Maison de la Danse de Lyon (FR) in 2017/18, She is Dublin Dance Festival Artist in Residence in 2020/22 and a Big Pulse Dance Alliance Artist 2021/23.
Sandrine Lescourant, also known as MUFASA, cut her teeth in the world of hip hop dance battles with the pioneers of the culture.
Her background is enriched by a highly codified education: classical dance, contemporary dance, traditional African dance; Sandrine is nonetheless self-taught to the core, developing a style rooted in hip hop values, a dance of resistance on the underground scene, while collaborating on stage with several choreographers from the contemporary scene.
Today, Sandrine is creator and choreographer of the Kilaï company. Sandrine’s approach is based on in-depth movement research, exploring social ties and their representation through the body. She has been dancing with Oona Doherty since 2019.
Maxime Jerry Fraisse is a multidisciplinary sound artist born in the 90s in northern Ardèche, France.
He studied jazz and dramatic art from childhood, then went on to attend Parisian conservatories between 2012 and 2018, forging most of his practice in computer music as a self-taught artist.
Today, he creates for the live performance and audiovisual sectors, and also works as an author, composer and producer for French chanson. As a solo artist, he is currently working on an ambient and experimental electronic music project.
This tour is made possible by the support of Culture Ireland.