Breandán breaks new ground with ‘Linger’

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

He made his name as the principal dancer in Riverdance, but Donegal-born Breandán de Gallaí is a man of many talents and these are evident in the dance show, Linger, which comes to the city’s Town Hall Theatre on Thursday, March 16.

Choreographed by Breandán and performed by himself and Nick O’Connell, Linger combines photography and film with music and movement to explore identity, sexuality and ageing.

“It comes from a very personal place,” says Breandán as he explains that it’s about two male dancers at opposite ends of their dancing careers.

“It’s an odyssey in my head – the type of journey I’d take on a night out, first as a younger man and then as an older man”.

The younger man in Linger is in his prime while the older dancer has lost some of his agility but brings other qualities to the piece.

“Nick does one part and I do the other and we mirror each other, taking in the passage of time,” outlines Breandán. “It’s about what you were and who you are.”

The personal narrative also involves “struggling with sexuality and how that kind of defines who we are”, he explains.

Nick is 17 years younger than Breandán but their lives and careers have been very similar.

“Things are happening to him in his career that reflect my own,” observes Breandán.

“Both of us were late coming out. Nick was 27, which was the same age as I was and I don’t want it to be like that for anybody else.”

Linger has its own narrative, but not “a beginning, middle and an end” as you’d find in a piece of theatre, Breandán explains.

“It speaks directly to the person and connects with your gut, so everyone comes away with a different experience.”

Breandán describes Linger as “a very contemporary take on Irish dance” and that’s no exaggeration, given that it features jazz music and a tango in the middle.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.