Rince / damsha / macnas: a dance between Gaelic language, embodied disputed spatial practice and choreography as a tool of socio-ecological praxis

Ag rince: Drawing from my residencies on Rathlin Island in 2016, 2018–2019 and 2021, this reflection shares extracts and questions from a dance between developing my understanding of the Gaelic language, embodied disputed spatial practice and methodological questions of using choreography as a tool of socio-ecological praxis. Rathlin is the only inhabited offshore island of Northern Ireland, with a steadily growing population of approximately 150 people, and is the most northerly inhabited island off the coast of the island of Ireland. Creating walking/dancing/talking collective workshops, residents and visitors alike explored a series of routes and scores across and around the island; delving into the question as to how language, movement and meditative movement enhance and enrich our connection to place and thus sense of collective social responsibility and interconnectedness of community and land. Bothántaíocht: Myths, legends, folk stories, remembrances and childhood stumbles converge as we walk, dance, navigate and stop in awe of the misty dawn, the night and the spaces between.