Moving Through and Around…

Opening of cross border, mixed media exhibition inspired by dance in Strule Arts Centre Omagh

At 7pm on Thursday 3 July, Strule Arts Centre Omagh is delighted to announce the Opening of ‘Moving through and around’, an exhibition by Helena Hamilton, Aoife McGrath, Sorca McGrath, and Simon Mills in collaboration with eight dancers working across the rural border regions of Cavan, Fermanagh-Omagh and Monaghan: Ruth Clarke, Marion Crowe, Jamie Fagan, Jessie Keenan, Tina McGurren, Rebeca Sanchez, Aysha Treanor, and Dylan Quinn.

The exhibition invites you to experience the diverse range of dance practiced in this border region through sculpture, sound, video, photography, drawings, and movement capture. Taking inspiration from the unique geological landscapes formed by the movement of water through and around rocks above and beneath the territorial border, the exhibition celebrates connections between people and place forged through dance; honouring embodied sharing of movement and cultures.

From Sean-Nós, hip-hop, Flamenco and set dancing, to contemporary, Scottish Country, jiving and line-dancing, the exhibition shares personal, affective, interrelational, and location-specific experiences of dance connections that would not normally be recorded in mapping of dance on the island. It allows an alternative cartography and sensory landscape to emerge that offers new perspectives on how dance is practiced, shared, and valued.

Through a wide range of media, the exhibition allows your moves to join the dance through a visual, sonic and choreographic encounter with the steps, sounds, and significant sites for dance in this rural border region.

Dance Connects

This exhibition is part of the Dance Connects in Rural Border Regions project funded by Creative Ireland’s Creative Communities on a Shared Island scheme (Creative Ireland Programme, 2023-2027). Dance Connects (2024 – 2025) partners local authorities of Cavan, Monaghan, and Fermanagh-Omagh with practitioners of diverse dance communities working in their border areas, and researchers Professor Aoife McGrath (School of Arts, English and Languages, QUB) and Dr Victoria Durrer (School of Art History and Cultural Policy, UCD).

Employing an innovative, creative engagement approach combining dance practice-as-research and social science, the project responds to the main areas of development identified in the research partners’ Creative Ireland/Cavan Arts funded pilot project, Sites of Significance (2023). Working together, partners are building a sustainable cross-border exchange that informs policy and is meaningful to the unique dance ecology of rural, cross-border areas.

The exhibition runs until 5pm on Saturday 26 July, Monday – Saturday, 9.30am -5pm. Admission is free. If you require any further information on any of the above, or Strule Arts Centre programme of entertainment log on to www.struleartscentre.co.uk or contact 028 8224 7831, email: strulearts@fermanaghomagh.com

Editor’s Notes

Artist Bios

Helena Hamilton

Helena is an artist working at the intersections of visual art, sound, digital interaction, and performance. Her practice explores the dynamic connections between sound and visuals, bridging digital and physical environments to create experiences that engage individuals on sensory, emotional, and/or intellectual level. The aim is to evoke direct, impactful experiences that invite participation and personal reflection, rather than offering commentary.

Her current research focuses on how technology can negotiate these interactions, experimenting with hybrid forms that challenge traditional boundaries between disciplines. Helena is currently completing a PhD at Sonic Arts Research Centre.

Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and festivals across Europe, Asia, and North America. Solo exhibitions include Virtual Matter [Ambient], Naughton Gallery (2022), while showcases such as Digital in Berlin (2024) and Digital Design Weekend, V&A Museum (2017) reflect my commitment to innovation. Residencies in Tokyo and London have further enriched her exploration of experimental art.

Aoife McGrath

Aoife McGrath is a dance artist and choreographer, and Professor of Dance at the School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast. Her research spans dance practice, scholarship and policy to explore interdisciplinary, collaborative creative processes, and how embodied knowledge can be integrated into research to enable multiple ways of knowing. She has published widely on dance on the island of Ireland and recent choreographic research projects include collaborations with researchers in sociology, psychology, education, and the health sciences, and community and place-based projects in collaboration with artists and local authorities. She currently leads the International Parenting and Dance Network (AHRC) in collaboration with partners in the US (Texas Tech University; Colorado State University), Canada (Balancing Act), and the UK (Canterbury Christ Church University; Dance Mama; Parents and Carers in the Performing Arts (PiPA); One Dance UK) and Co-Leads, Youth Dance Matters (HEA North South Research Programme), and Dance Connects in Rural Border Regions (Creative Ireland) – both with Dr Victoria Durrer (UCD). Her practice research has been funded by Horizon Europe, Creative Ireland, Arts Humanities and Research Council/UKRI, Future Screens NI/AHRC, and the Higher Education Authority, amongst others. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/aoife-mcgrath(7520aa1a-9e24-4b9d-a82a-05fbb290b019).html

Sorca McGrath

With roots in classical piano training from the College of Music (now the TU Dublin Conservatoire) and early choral experience under Seán Creamer with the Park Singers and National Children’s Choir, Sorca McGrath brings a deep musical foundation to an expansive creative practice. Vocalist, self-taught guitarist, and seasoned recording and production engineer, she has spent over two decades performing and producing music in both national and international contexts.

As part of the band Ships, Sorca co-wrote, produced, and performed the album Precession, which won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize for Best Irish Album of 2017. Her voice and production work featured in ESB’s Brighter Future campaign (2018–2022), and her sound design and composition have shaped works across film and contemporary dance, including The Let Down (Queen’s University Belfast, 2018), the ongoing Dance and the Maternal Series, and the televised performance piece Grief as a Ghost (RTE One, St. Patrick’s Festival, 2021). Most recently, she has composed and designed sound for the short film Sights of Significance (2023).

Blending technical expertise with emotional depth, Sorca’s work explores the boundaries between sound, movement, memory, and place.

Simon Mills

Simon Mills is Belfast based photographer and film maker specialising in documenting creative practices, art & cultural heritage. As well as exploring making processes and communities, his work also examines land use and our changing relationship with the landscape.

Recent projects include The Valley, examining the interstitial ceramics community of Chaaba Valley in Safi, Morocco; Film Makers, a series of short films detailing maker’s responses to archive footage of the landscape and heritage practices of Northern Ireland as well as collaborative films with dancer Oona Doherty and artist Una Walker.

His work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and festivals including Nerve Visual Gallery, Derry, Platform Arts, Cheongju Binennale, South Korea, Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh and the Craft Film Festival, London Craft Week.