echo echo dance theatre company
Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company is based in Derry in Northern Ireland where it
has its home studios in Waterloo House on the historic City Walls. Echo Echo was
founded by Ursula Laeubli and Steve Batts in Amsterdam in 1991. The company
worked extensively throughout Europe before moving to Derry in 1997. Echo Echo
favours collaborative and co-operative working methods. The company is organised
as an ensemble with a group of artists who are committed to long term
collaboration and mutual support. Echo Echo creates touring, site and event
specific productions, a festival of dance and movement, a programme of artistic
residencies, performances by visiting artists and companies, and a wide variety
of participatory projects with a broad range of groups and individuals. The
style of our work varies greatly. Rather than being defined by a particular
aesthetic or idiom, we approach dance broadly as the art of “poetic movement”.
We understand that dance has a similar relation to our everyday movement as the
poetic use of language does to our normal, everyday speech. Being “poetic” in
movement is natural and universal, and accordingly our approach is organically
suited to many levels of participation. We do not see a rigid or fundamental
distinction between “professional” projects and “participatory” projects. We are
committed to high quality artistic practice and to creating numerous ways for
people to join in. Echo Echo works with and collaborates with, among others,
pre-school children and parents, schools and youth groups, people with learning
disabilities, people with physical and sensory disabilities, and older people,
as well as with professional dancers, performers and artists from other
disciplines. Homepage Gallery images Áirc Damhsa; onetwo3 by Sarah Fennell and
Laura Lundy; Body Wisdom hands by Sarah Bryden Photography; Siamsa Tíre hands
image by Siobhán Dempsey; Kristyn Fontanella by Roberto Cinconze.
