Laois dancer to premiere new show on Portlaoise stage

Modern energetic dance theatre comes to Portlaoise in June when the Dunamaise Arts Centre stages Ruining the Act which is choreographed by a Laois native who also stars in the show.

Featuring a group of highly accomplished and acclaimed dancers, it's a performance that not to be missed says the Dunamaise team.

"Ruining the Act is a dance performance that both questions and celebrates how we, as people, perform. It’s a look inside the social construct of performance and what that means to the individual. 

"Ruining the Act explores how we navigate life in states of both the survival brain and the more curious learning brain. How do we suppress our instincts and can we thrive in the cathartic space between ecstasy and anxiety, capturing how we get through the performance of life on and off the stage," said the Dunamaise. 

The show is composed by Emily Kilkenny Roddy, a dance artist from Portlaoise. After doing a foundation course in Bray Institute of Further Education she travelled to the UK for her degree, graduating from the University of Chichester (UK) in 2016.

Trained in numerous styles but for the most part, works as a contemporary dancer, choreographer and facilitator. She has worked with companies and artists which include Loosysmokes (IRE), Lea Anderson (UK), Junk Ensemble (IRE), Theatre Lovett (IRE) and Nacera Belaza (FR).

She works in both contemporary and commercial fields. Previous commercial roles include: choreographer/performer for numerous festival shows across Ireland, TV shows (RTE, TG4, Choreographer for Body Brothers on RTE jr) and Music Videos (Nnic, Bonneymen).  

Emily has recently travelled into the acting world as well, her debut performance in Short Film BRUISE (2022, premiere GFF), for which she was nominated for Best Actor at Louth International Film Festival. Recently signed by the Lisa Richards Agency after completing  the 6 month screen acting course in Bow Street (2022), Emily is set to make her TV debut in The Vanishing Triangle (2023).

RUINING THE ACT is supported by the Arts Council. It is premiering in The Dunamaise before travelling back to Dublin for The Complex. Emily was eager that her first full length show to premiere in Laois and she is very excited to bring it to Laois audiences and bring a team of people from all over Ireland to her hometown's Art Centre.

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Performed by a cast of Irish dance artists, the show blends physicality, dance and text, supported by a visceral soundscape, to show the light and dark of the process. Emily also dances in the show with Sibeál Davitt, Millie Daniel Dempsey, Rosie Mullin.

Tickets are priced: €16/€14 and on sale from the Box Office, Tel: 057 8663355 or see dunamaise.ie