Tara Brandel

Who gets to dance? What does Irish look like? What kind of bodies get to be on stage? The aging pole dancer. The street dancer as new migrant. The non-normative body. In a rapidly changing society, Circus looks at diverse experiences in contemporary Irish culture, through the lens of dance. Playful, funny, poignant, irreverent, in Circus, Tara Brandel mixes street dance and contemporary dance, with aerial pole, and video projection, weaving very diverse stories about masculinity, queerness, MeToo and gender in collaboration with Nigerian street dancer Nicholas Nwosu who is currently a new immigrant in Ireland.

Tara Brandel
Tara Brandel is a dance artist from Ireland who has been choreographing extensively since 1990. She performed Gawky and Awkward at SFIAF 2015; created Square One for D-CAF 2017 in Cairo, Egypt; her dance film CAR was Director's Choice at the CDIFF in Toronto 2017; and she performed with Croí Glan in Jess Curtis/Gravity's Intercontinental Collaborations #7, in San Francisco 2018. Most recently Tara has toured Cappaghglass, a one woman show about migration, to Cork Midsummer Festival, D-CAF Cairo Egypt, Echo Echo Derry, San Francisco FRESH Festival, and Ponderosa, Germany. Tara recently completed an MFA in Choreography from UC Davis.

Nicholas Nwosu
Nicholas Nwosu is a Street Dancer from Nigeria. His dance styles mix Hip Hop, Twerking and Hip-let in a unique blend, focusing on improvised and innovative movement. He has created dances for the Calabar Carnaval, worked as a dancer at Casablanca Club in Largos, and has been involved in numerous street dance competitions throughout Nigeria, including the international Calabar street dance competition. Nicholas has been involved in various competitions and performances in Ireland, including teaching for WILD West Cork Contemporary Dance Festival, and is currently studying at University College Dublin.