Try, Try Again_DANCE
A film documenting a performative exploration into the phenomenon of Neurogenisis (the idea that the brain can grow new neurons with physical activity).
Try, Try Again_DANCE focuses on contemporary dance as a benefit to emotional well-being. It’s been scientifically proven through Magnetic Resonance Imaging that learning builds new neurons, and repetitive learning holds those neurons in place making them stronger and stronger strengthening the brain, defending against anxiety and depression.
Thank you to The Firkin Crane-Dance Theatre, Cork Yoga Collective & The Metropole Hotel - Leeside Leisure Centre for allowing me to explore this concept.
^Link to film above^
Dancer and Choreographer : Inma Pavon
Sound Artists : Mick O Shea and Irene Murphy
Camera : Harry Moore
Edited by Vicki Davis and Harry Moore
Supported by the Arts Council Agility Award, 2021
Try Try Again_DANCE was screened as a work-in-progress at Uillinn, West Cork Art Center, 2021, and IndieCork Film Festival, 2022. It was later screened with an accompanying live performance for Cinesalon Experimental Film Night at The Guesthouse Projects Cork, 2024, and again at Uillinn West Cork Art Center for Skibbereen Arts Festival, 2024.
The Background Story:
Try, Try Again began in 2020.
I had been taking beginner contemporary dance classes for a couple of months the year before with dancer Inma Pavon. Being an adult, starting anew and having never taken a contemporary dance class before it really made me aware of my body, something that I never really took notice of before. I became aware of my mind too, it’s inability to focus and overall lack of grounding. I found I was a bit slower than the rest of the girls at remembering the dance routines. I found myself becoming aware of the different abilities people have. I also became aware of the fact that if I tried harder and practiced more then I was able to start keeping up with the dance routines. I felt more grounded, and my body even felt more aligned.
But while all this progress was happening I began to question neurodivergence and why one persons capabilities differ from the other. Covid-19 was apon us and I was researching Neurogenisis and the idea of repetitive learning building new pathways. I had not taken a dance class in a couple of months and Inma Pavon was on lockdown in Spain. I thought the best way to tackle this concept was to ask Inma if she would be willing to send me a couple of videos of her dancing. She so happily agreed and I directed her in the type of background needed and colour clothes to wear. I asked her to send me a difficult routine (due to the fact that I had already been taking lessons with her and my muscle memory was aware of that). I was planning on projecting the video of Inma onto multiple screens and I was going to try to learn the dance as a public performance art piece. Inma sent me her film aaaand it was too difficult. I could not dance the routine at all.
So I took a break and the idea became a short film that was screened for IndieCork Film Festival, 2022. The film was screened with an accompanying narrative that I read live, an expert taken from “What Can Neuroscience Bring to Education” Dr. Denis Staunton, U.C.C.
Now because Inma had sent me a routine that was too difficult I was stuck and felt that the work was incomplete.
I decided to re-imagine the film and created a new piece where I didn’t learn the dance but would perform a short accompanying movement piece instead. This version became Try, Try Again_DANCE and was screened for Cinesalon, 2024 and Skibbereen Arts Festival 2024.
I have still not managed to project Inma onto multiple screens to complete the live performance-art piece, and I still cannot dance the routine.
This work is still in-progress.
‘For thousands of years people believed that the sun went round the Earth. So widespread and firm was this belief that it was taken to be reality. In the sixteenth century, however, Copernicus put forward the radically different idea that the Earth went around the sun. His theory was not readily accepted and considered by many as ‘heresy’. It took a century of persuasion before the old reality was scrapped and a new reality adopted’
Staunton, D. and Brennan, A. (2024). Brain Health for Learning. Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers.
