The colour of the season, modelled by the dance troupe of the moment: the endlessly innovative CoisCéim Dance Theatre.
Mix blue, the colour of the sky and lofty ideals, with red, the colour of blood, life and emotion, and you get purple - which represents many things, none of which can be taken lightly. Dominating the colour palette this autumn, purple can remind you of plump damsons or crushed grapes. It's also a signifier of royal luxury and opulence or religious devotion. It's dramatic, smouldering, sophisticated and inspires a more passionate reaction than its sweeter, milder cousin, pink.
Sumptuous purple represents extremes of feeling, a fevered state in which opposites are no longer discernible in the intensity of sensation. It's a sense which artistic director David Bolger, Emma O'Kane and the other dancers of CoisCéim have become well acquainted with, during rehearsals for their upcoming show, Knots.
Relationships with their tangles and kinks form a recurring theme in Bolger's work. Last year's site-specific piece, Chamber-Made, which took voyeuristic glee in following the sex and struggles of three couples in an anonymous hotel room, has just bagged a Fringe First Award in Edinburgh. Knots enlists the choreographic vision of Liam Steel, from the British physical-theatre company DV8. He based the piece on work written by RD Laing in the 1970s.
"Liam used the text as a springboard for movement," explains Bolger. "It's an insightful description of relationships, how certain actions from the past carry through and influence the present. How we're tying ourselves in knots without being aware of it." The piece feels complex, says Bolger, a "layering of dance and meaning. The text gives you one piece of information, the body gives you another, and you end up bouncing between extremes."
In his professional life, Bolger also seems to bounce from one project to another. Having presented a contemporary dance version of The Nutcracker earlier this year, he went on to work as movement director on DruidSynge with Garry Hynes. After this, he will be directing Handel's Imeneo for Opera Ireland.
In the meantime, Bolger and his fellow dancers are all tied up in rehearsals for Knots, this harsh, dark piece that depicts not so much physical as emotional violence. The women, like Miss Havisham, wear decaying wedding gowns as they wait for the ideal partner who may never materialise. In similar matrimonial gear, the men are "all bruised and tortured", as Bolger puts it. "Everything that would normally be hidden on the inside is visible: bruising of feeling, heart, love."
This season's purple picks up the aura of bruised feeling, but also of luxury, decadence, reverence and sensuality. It's an instant way to elegance, and there's a shade to suit everyone. It won't unravel the knots in your relationships, let alone help you tie the knot, but it might remind you to abandon yourself to passion and the intense experience of life. And that's certainly worth a few entanglements.
CoisCéim's production of Knots opens on Wednesday at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin, running daily until September 29. You can book at 1850-374643 or www.fringefest.com