ROBERT CONNOR & LORETTA YURICK

“Dance is a language with a power to encourage the spirit, evoke memory and reflect ideas. In our work we construct dance, imagery and music that reflects on living, life, people, or on qualities of movement which – in and of themselves – take our imaginations to those places.

Dance, and dancers, are perhaps one of the last remarkable vestiges of living in the moment—of working in ways that don’t necessarily compute—of working with one’s body and imagination, and ultimately with each other…a rigorous place where we rely on the body’s wisdom to respond in new ways to what it already knows or to what the mind reflects upon. There are many ways into that centre…it’s a hard life, but a magnificent world.”

Robert Connor and Loretta Yurick have been at the forefront of the development of contemporary dance in Ireland throughout their careers as performers, choreographers, teachers and producers.

Robert and Loretta hold BA's in Psychology and Urban Studies, respectivly. Their earliest dance training was in Abstract Expressionism with Nancy Hauser and Hanya Holm at the Centre for the Performing Arts in Minneapolis, where they were also taught by then Company members, Ralph Lemon and Steve Koester. Since then they have worked in a variety of contemporary dance styles including Limon, Cunningham, Nikolais and release techniques as well as contact improvisation. Together and separately they have created over 30 original works for Dance Companies and Festivals

In addition to their own choreography, Robert and Loretta have danced in and produced the works of choreographers Blok & Steel (Amsterdam), Dominique Bagouet, Pierre Doussaint and Isabelle Dubouloz, Charles Cre Ange (France), Rui Horta (Portugal), Phillipe Saire (Switzerland), Janet Smith, Royston Muldoon, Scott Clarke (Britain), North American Choreographers, Marta Renzi, Mark Taylor, Sara and Jerry Pearson, Nina Martin, Doris Humphrey, Randy Glynn, Yoshiko Chuma and Art Bridgeman/Myrna Packer.

Robert and Loretta are founding members and former officers of The Association of Professional Dancers in Ireland. They have extensive teaching experience in schools and professional studios throughout Ireland and abroad, with young people, dancers and actors. Full length programmes of their choreography have been presented and produced for Dance Festivals in Florence and Genoa (Italy), London and Surrey (Britain), Sweden, Amsterdam, Germany and Bulgaria and their works have toured to all major venues in Ireland. Their work has been selected for presentation at the Bagnolet Choreography Competition in London and their production of Doninique Bagouet’s Deserts d’Amour opened the 1996 Montpellier International Dance Festival. The Company has also been produced by the Biennale de la Danse du Val de Marne, as well as other European Culture Capitals and Festivals.

In October 2000 they founded a new Centre for Dance where their Company works and a program of Evening and Weekend Courses takes place.

Robert and Loretta’s work has embraced the search for vocabularies and collaborations which enlighten the process of being human. Whether in abstract dance or dance theatre, they produce work that has theatrical and emotional impact.