The Morrígan is an ongoing choreographic research project (2022- ) investigating the figure of its namesake, a key goddess entity in pre-Christian Irish mythology, through an embodied ecofeminist lens.

Recent Performances

The Morrígan: A dance and music journey through the Path of Life Sculpture Garden | Saturday, October 14th, 2023 | The Path of Life, Windsor, Vermont

This performance was supported by a fiscal sponsorship with the Vermont Dance Alliance, a non-profit organization working to expand the visibility and accessibility of dance throughout the state of Vermont. Learn more at vermontdance.org.

Who Is The Morrígan?

The Morrígan is known variably as a goddess of war, fate, death, sovereignty, and fertility. She appears as a maiden, a crone, animals including crows, cows, and eels, and at times a terrifying disembodied voice. She is oft interpreted as three individual sisters who function together through time under The Morrígan title, rather than one figure. She has mysterious connections to the Irish landscape, and can be a violent or vengeful figure while also rewarding or assisting certain people or gods in warfare. She resists ownership and categorization.

An ecofeminist reading of The Morrígan holds interesting implications around both gender and nature, demonstrating that there is a price for survival; that humans are part of a delicate network with nature rather than above or separate from it; and that women hold a specific power in that network.

Process

This is a research- and contemplation-driven work. Research has included a course on connecting with The Morrígan figure through the Irish Pagan School, interviews with Professor John Carey of University College Cork, as well as scholarly articles and books on Irish mythology, The Morrígan, and spiritual ecology. Meditation and improvisation on the themes of shapeshifting, wildness and violence, triptychs, body as/in landscape, female power and mythological depictions, and the unknowability of intention have all informed the movement choices.

A solo and trio for the stage were developed for the Salem Arts Festival (MA) and Junction Dance Festival (VT) in 2022 and 2023, but the full realization of the work was the outdoor performance installation in October 2023 at the Path of Life Sculpture Garden (VT). As The Morrígan straddles both the nature/culture binary and the gender spheres (using her shapeshifting to become and communicate with animals, and to infiltrate traditionally male spaces such as the battlefield), much of the movement was developed with our bodies outdoors in natural spaces. With an outdoor performance, with land as collaborator, viewers were brought deeper into the experience of the piece from a sensory standpoint.

The goal is both to learn about and spotlight the lesser-known parts of Irish mythology amongst the Irish-American community; and to connect the complexity of this goddess figure to contemporary themes of lost connections to natural landscape, perceptions of powerful female figures, and the nuanced, poetic areas between realities.

Support

Donation and sponsorship opportunities are currently closed, as the October 2023 performance just wrapped. Stay tuned for future ways to support this project!

The development of this project was funded in part by New England Foundation for the Arts’ New England Dance Fund, with generous support from the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.