Gallery Movement Workshop: The Arc of the Body

Explore Lucy Stein’s paintings through the act of movement with dance artist Aoibhinn O'Dea in the context the Gallery exhibition Lunula.

This gallery-based workshop connects with the artworks through an exploration of movement. Taking inspiration from Lucy Stein’s paintings to open a space for awareness, creativity and intuitive choice-making through movement, this workshop will guide participants to tune into the body as a source for connection and storytelling.

The workshop begins with a guided warm-up, focusing on tuning and grounding the body, while awakening awareness of the body’s materials—skin, bones, and organs. The second part of the workshop explores movement and image as a way of creating story, drawing on the paintings in the exhibition to improvise creating compositional tools and choreography. The final part of the workshop is dedicated to instant composition, where participants create and share moments of movement, individually and as a group, drawing on intuition and the elements explored throughout the session.

This is an adult workshop and is open to anyone with an interest in dance. No prior dance experience needed. Comfortable clothing recommended.

Aoibhinn O’Dea is a dance artist working across the dance, music and visual arts. She trained in Contemporary Dance (Tanzfabrik, Berlin), and holds an MA in Dance and Performance (Irish World Academy) and BFA in Sculpture (NCAD). Her work is often site-specific and public, combining movement, costume, and sound to explore themes of human connection and societal limitation. She teaches inclusive dance/movement workshops and collaborates with multidisciplinary artists such as Acid Granny, Péist and Isadora Epstein, underpinning an interest in making dance and performance more accessible to a wider audience.

Lucy Stein’s paintings draw on feminine iconography from a wide range of sources including ancient Greek mythology, medieval and ecclesiastical illuminations. Stein also responds to her personal experiences as a mother and caregiver to represent a vision of womanhood throughout time. Connecting her former life in the west of Ireland with more recent years spent in rural Cornwall, Stein channels the inherent energies of the natural landscape that have inspired and been worshipped over millennia.

Event Location Information: This event takes place in our ground floor, street-facing gallery. The room is naturally lit with paintings on the wall. There will be access to a partially accessible bathroom. For further accessibility information contact Learning + Public Engagement Curator Órla Goodwin.