Dance. Ain’t it strange how that word means different things to different people? To some – maybe most readers of hotpress – it’s synonymous with contemporary youth culture. To others, such as Catherine Nunes, Artistic Director of the International Dance Festival Ireland which takes place at various venues in Dublin from May 8th-26th, “contemporary dance” has a different meaning altogether.

“Young people do divide the two,” says Nunne. “But I would uphold the tenet that the impulse comes from the same place, within our body. Whether people are dancing in a club or as part of a dance act performing in our festival, many share the desire to transcend, whatever. Leave their bodies for a while. It is a desire beyond words. From your centre. And you just start to float and feel. God, that’s fabulous!”

Catherine also points out that one of the focal points in the dance festival is a presentation of works by Michael Clark, the “bad boy” of British dance. Why the bad boy?

“Well, in the ’80s he really brought dance to a new generation of people with his use of punk music and so on,” says Nunne. “His reputation at the time also was very much in that whole culture of drink and drugs and all the rest of it. He was always slightly unpredictable, let’s say! And that comes across in his work, to a great degree. In fact, half of the piece he’s showing in the Festival concerns work he did in the ’80s with the likes of Trojan, people who were all involved in that night-club that Boy George is currently doing a West End musical about. And they really all were key cultural icons of the time.”

Catherine says she wants to “get tongues wagging” about this Dance Festival in general. And “to illuminate the art form and inspire the imagination.” How so?

“How I hope to do that is, for the first time, to show a great diversity of contemporary dance,” she responds.” Because, as you say, people’s perception of what contemporary dance is can still be, say, people pretending to be trees or rolling around in dark corners, in black leotards. I’m trying to demystify the art form and show it is much wider than that. And that there is a whole breath of work that happens under this label ‘contemporary dance’ which I don’t think people are aware of.”

One way of breaking down barriers in terms of contemporary dance is to stage performances in unusual settings. That’s Catherine’s belief. And so, parts of this Festival will be taking place in, for example, “the smallest night-club in the world”, Temple Bar’s Miniscule of Sound. Another unusual venue is Dublin’s wonderful Trocadero restaurant.

“We do want to access people, in different places,” Catherine concludes. “We’re just trying to give people different hooks to come to the Festival. Also, there might be, say, a visual arts element to certain work, for those who are more interested in visual arts. Anything we can do – within reason! – to extend the boundaries for the audience for contemporary dance we will do!”