On The Town Catherine FoleyTarnjit Bharaj and Amar Dehele, two dhol drummers, beat out a frantic rhythm on their traditional Punjabi instruments in Dublin's sunny Temple Bar this week. From the nearby Purty Kitchen venue, more pulsing sounds emerged, tasters of what will be on offer at the upcoming Festival of World Cultures.
Bhangra dancers dipped and twirled, Brazilian dancers glittered and wove in and out of intricate sequences, and a young uilleann-pipe player, Banba Fitzgerald, from Dún Laoghaire, played Bean Dubh an Ghleanna. Then Edgar Genio, Michael Go and Cholo Auer, the three singers who make up the group Manila Rhythm, sang a native love song, Da Hil Sa' Yo (Because of You).
It was a dizzying display of music and dance, organised to give an idea of what will be on offer at the seventh annual festival. This year's audiences are expected to surpass last year's 220,000, according to festival director Jody Ackland.
"For me, I always get a real thrill out of the real indigenous acts," she said, mentioning especially Throat Songs: Sounds From the Tundra, a show which will bring together practitioners from the Inuit, Saami and Tuvan cultures for one evening in the Methodist church in Monkstown.
Ackland was excited about many aspects of the festival, but she made particular mention of the presence of 37 musicians from Uzbekistan, as well as that of the Super Rail Band de Bamako, who are "the godfathers of Malian music". Also performing will be the Portuguese folk singer, Mariza, who "we've been trying for years and years to get".
Festival manager Jane Davy listed highlights such as Poland's number-one reggae group, Vavamuffin, a global village with more than 70 speciality stalls from around the world, a Mexican mariachi band and Facade: Art of Noise, a specially designed projection piece from Emilio and Sebastian Arteaga, which will illuminate the wall of the newly refurbished Royal Marine Hotel.
The Festival of World Cultures, presented by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, will run in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, from Fri, Aug 24 to Sun, Aug 26. For details, visit www.festivalofworldcultures.com
No slacking for teenage trailblazer
Nineteen-year-old Ruth Gilligan, who is studying English at Cambridge University, came home to Dublin accompanied by a slew of friends for the launch of her second book, Somewhere in Between. She's a trailblazer for her generation, said broadcaster Ryan Tubridy, launching her novel in Blackrock's Dubray Books this week. At school "she did debating, hockey, acting, wrote a book. She's a slacker!" he joked.
Gilligan became an instant bestseller last year with her first book, Forget. She then achieved six A1s in her Leaving Cert. Already, she has played the part of goth Laura Halpin in the soap series, Fair City. It's a wonder she has any friends, quipped Tubridy mischievously, looking around at a room full of the polyglot's school and university friends. From the start, Tubridy was of the view that "she's going to go all the way, she's smart".
"I felt a lot more pressure than I did the first time round," said Gilligan when asked about writing this second novel. But, she added, "this time it was a much more organised process. I thought it through, which I didn't do with Forget. I had a plan."
She also "decided I wasn't going to write in term-time", so she wrote the book over the Christmas and Easter holidays. And now "I'm even more proud of it than Forget".
Why does she write? "I just love it. I love music, I love acting, I love creative work. This is my passion. I love English," she said.
Neighbours from her home in Blackrock, including Irene O'Beirne, Jill and Brian Harrison and Dorothy Connolly, were among the well-wishers.
"From the time she was three she was reading," recalled O'Beirne.
Actor Frank Kelly, his wife Bairbre and their daughter, Rachel, were also at the launch. A schoolfriend, Maeve Larkin, said she was looking forward to reading Gilligan's new book.
"I read the rough draft of Forget when she wrote it in fourth year. It was like talking to a friend. She had all our mannerisms down," she said.
"Its easy to relate to," said another schoolfriend, Isabelle O'Keeffe.
Somewhere in Between, by Ruth Gilligan, is published by Hodder Headline Ireland
A marriage made in heaven
Lovers of theatre and dance had a choice of two different openings at the Project theatre this week.
Wedlock of the Gods, a Nigerian play by Zulu Sofola, opened downstairs with a cast of 12, while upstairs a new dance production called Input/Output opened on the same night, produced by Roy Carroll in association with the Project Arts Centre.
"I'm asking a moral question with this play," said first-time director Kunle Animashaun, about Wedlock of the Gods. "What are we doing or not doing as parents to our kids? The question is, are we listening to our kids?"
"It's a very wonderful play," said Nigerian actor Deji Adenuga, who was there to enjoy the opening performance of this long-established work. "It's written by somebody who has a very deep knowledge of theatre."
Many friends and family of the largely Nigerian cast came to the play's opening night, including cultural mediator Glen Eneh, IT engineer Ignatius Okafor and artist Godi Aniuzu. Also present at the Camino De Orula Production was Martin Drury of the Arts Council, his partner, Sharon Murphy, arts officer with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, who has just been awarded the Jerome Hynes Fellowship, and Ronit Lentin, a TCD lecturer in sociology who specialises in race and ethnicity issues.
There was further excitement upstairs as dance practitioners and actors gathered to enjoy the newly created dance pieces, as choreographed by Maya Lipsker and Rebecca Walter, and performed by Walter, Vidal Bini and Alex Sieber.
"They are exploring that wonderful interplay between music and dance," said Paul Johnson, director of Dance Ireland. "It's very movement-based and it's very arresting visually," he said. Laurie Uprichard, the newly appointed artistic director of International Dance Festival Ireland, was among the guests, as was actor and director Myles Breen and actor Mairéad Devlin.
Wedlock of the Gods, by Zulu Sofola, at the Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, ends tonight. Input/Output, produced by Roy Carroll, in association with Project Arts Centre at the same centre, also ends tonight
Drawing on concepts of nothing
A group show that examines the colour black and its place in the world of art history, architecture and music, opened at the Ashford Gallery in Dublin this week.
"It's certainly different," said Anne Harris, who was there with her husband, Clonmel businessman Ken Harris. "I loved the New Moon one."
Another visitor, Judy O'Broin, who works in advertising, liked the work by Mark Garry, called You Are Walking in my Shadow. "It feels quite satisfying, I don't know why," she said. Her father, Brendan O'Broin, was at the show also.
"It appeals to me, but I don't know what it means," said Carmel Kelly, who is on the council of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland. "I'm mystified," she added, smiling.
The exhibition, All Colours Black (Next to Nothing), is based on "a desire to pare down a work of art to its simplest, most precise form, a form that is quiet, elegant and concerned with the process of the artist", explained curator Mark St John Ellis, who also has a piece in the show called Elijah's Mantle.
"Individually viewed, the pieces have a meaning intended by the artist," he said. But, he added, "one of the reasons for the use of black was to emphasise the work as objects".
Artist Eoin Butler said he found the work "fascinating and quite challenging and stimulating".
The other artists in the show, along with St John Ellis, are Clodagh Emoe, Lee Welch, Brendan Earley and Mark Garry. Emoe explained that her piece, Work No 12, was "a drawing of nothing. I'm interested in that Zen concept of nothing".
Artists who came to view the work included Desmond Shortt, George Potter RHA and Paul McKinley.
All Colours Black (Next to Nothing) continues at the Ashford Gallery, in the Royal Hibernian Academy, until Thur, Aug 30