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Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre

Described as ‘one of the most daring and highly original dance theatre companies in the world’ (The Times), Fabulous Beast is an international ensemble led by Irish director and choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan. Founded in 1997, Fabulous Beast creates productions which have their roots in Ireland and Irish experience, but which deal with universal and often controversial issues in modern society, making them accessible and challenging for a wide audience.

The company’s productions prior to Giselle included: Sunday Lunch (1997); Fragile (1999); The Flowerbed (2000); and The Christmas Show (2001). The Flowerbed was revived for the Barbican and Dublin Fringe Festival in 2006 and was nominated for a UK Critics’ Circle Dance Award in the category of Best Modern Choreography.

Giselle premiered in 2003 and took Dublin and London by storm. It examined the universal condition of human suffering, which can be exasperated by living in a small town in the centre of a rural landscape. It was commissioned and co-produced by the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2003 and subsequently performed at the Barbican as part of barbicanbite05. Giselle won the Judges' Special Award at the 2003 Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards in Dublin, and was nominated for an Olivier Award in London in 2006. Prior to this appearance in Sydney, it has toured to the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas (USA 2004), the Festival Dialog Wroclaw, (Poland 2007), the New Zealand International Arts Festival (March 2008) and Perth International Arts Festival (Feb 2009). It was seen again by Irish audiences at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2008.

In 2005 the company created the second part of The Midlands Trilogy, The Bull, a co-production between barbicanbite07 and the Dublin Theatre Festival. Following a sell-out run during Dublin Theatre Festival 05, it played at the Barbican in February and March 2007. In January 2008 Michael Keegan-Dolan won the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography, and company member Colin Dunne received a nomination from the Critics’ Circle for Best Male Modern Artist. In February 2008 The Bull received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production and was recently revived for spielzeit’europa (Berliner Festspiele, November 2008). The Bull is based on the ancient Irish epic The Táin.

In 2007 the company created James Son of James, the third part of The Midlands Trilogy, a co-production with Dublin Theatre Festival, barbicanbite08 and Dance Touring Partnership (DTP). It tells the tale of a man who returns to his home in the midlands of Ireland after 11 years in the Far East. James Son of James premiered as part of the 50th-anniversary Dublin Theatre Festival in October 2007 and went on to complete an extensive UK tour presented by DTP in the spring of 2008.

Engagements for 2010 include performances of Giselle in Toronto (May) as part of World Stage 09:10 at Harbourfront Centre. The most ambitious project to date for Keegan-Dolan and his company is a new co-production with English National Opera of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, with a cast of twenty-four performers, opening at the London Coliseum in November 2009. It will be staged in Ireland in 2010. Fabulous Beast is supported by the Arts Council and Culture Ireland.