Show Programme
WHEN THE MOON SPun ROUND
Created by Fidget Feet and Ceol Connected
Agor Drysau | Opening Doors International Theatre Festival for Young Audiences
Wales 2024
When the Moon Spun Round is funded by Culture Ireland, Monaghan County Council, Gŵyr Agor Drysau Festival, and Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. Originally funded by the Arts Council Ireland. Originally commissioned by Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. Originally supported by the Irish Aerial Creation Centre, Siamsa Tíre, and Lime Tree Theatre
Images taken by Anita Murphy
“Making this show and working with Ceol Connected has been an absolute joy. Working with a company that loves making quality new work for young audiences as much as we do is magical. Since meeting Thomas at IPAY (as part of an Irish delegation funded by Culture Ireland) it was clear that we’d work together and become life-long friends. He is an amazing musician, performer, composer and producer – and adventurous enough to take flight with Fidget Feet while playing the Uilliean pipes on our first project together (Handful of Dreams) last year! I’m so excited for audiences to see this gem of a new show that we’ve created together – drawing inspiration and intrigue from the world of traditional arts and music When the Moon Spun Round delivers all the Fidget Feet aerial magic, dance, costumes and storytelling you’d expect, married with Ceol Connected’s gloriously joyful music. I can’t think of a better way to kick-off our Fidget Feet 25 year anniversary celebrations this year… ”
“The creation and development of When the Moon Spun Round has been exhilarating – and I know that will translate to the audience experience. I met Chantal at the International Performing Arts for Youth showcase in Philadelphia a number of years ago and we have not stopped dreaming since. This show has brought the worlds of Ceol Connected and Fidget Feet together in a way that brings those dreams to life. Audiences of all ages are in for a real treat!“
Images taken by Anita Murphy
Cast & Crew
Chantal McCormick – Fidget Feet’s Creative Director
Chantal McCormick trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance. After graduation, she became interested in aerial circus and trained at Circus Space, London. Chantal toured with established dance and circus companies in the UK from 1999-2008.
In 2004 Fidget Feet was founded by Chantal (Donegal) and her husband Jym Daly (Cork). Chantal has directed, choreographed, and performed shows with Fidget Feet including; Wired and Free, Fairies Tail, Remember Her, Madam Silk, Raw, Hang On, Catch Me, Fire Birds, Elves and the Shoemaker, Handful of Dreams, and When the Moon Spun Round.
Most recently Chantal has been working on a new project. An Aerial Hip H’Opera called H.O.M.E. Chantal is also the Festival Director of the Irish Aerial Dance Fest.
Thomas Johnston - Creative Director of Ceol Coneected
Thomas Johnston is Founder, Executive Producer, and Artistic Director of Ceol Connected. Thomas studied at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick and was awarded a PHD for his Bloom of Youth: Conceptualising a Theory of Educative Experience for Irish Traditional Music in Post-Primary Music Education in Ireland.
Since then Thomas has toured with Ceol Connected on many productions. The more recent being the Tradoodle Festival for children. Thomas has also lectured in Trinity College Dublin, UCD, DCU, Mary I Limerick, and the University of Limerick.
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Charlotte Bruce - Aerialist
Charlotte Bruce is a Contemporary dancer and Aerialist artist from Wexford Ireland. Charlotte’s background is in acrobatic gymnastics where she trained and competed with Gymstars Gymnastics Club Wexford for 12 years.
She went on to study ‘BA Performing Arts Contemporary Dance’ at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick achieving a First Class Honours Degree. During her course, she took part in the Erasmus programme allowing her to study abroad at ‘DOCH’ School of Dance and Circus Stockholm.
Charlotte now works at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick and performs alongside Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Company.
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Hannah Scully - Aerialist
Hannah is a professional aerialist who has previous training in contemporary dance and ballet. In 2022 She worked with Fearghus O Conchur and Lucia Kickham during Dance Limericks Step Up project. She has performed with Irish Modern Dance Theatre’s ‘The Wanderer’. Now she is a core member of Fidget Feet Aerial Dance company’s new show ‘When the moon spun round’. This year she travelled to California to train in vertical dance in the home of Bandaloop through IACC ‘new horizons’ residency.
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Vince Virr - Aerialist
Vince trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (BPA honours) and LABAN (MA). He is a dancer, choreographer and aerialist performing in 28 countries across six continents as well as having his work performed in England, Scotland, France, Austria and China. Vince is an international associate aerial artist with Aeriosa (Canada), has created commissioned works for Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, BD Festival, has just performed with Dua Lipa at The Brit Awards and is developing a large-scale project for Bradford UK City of Culture 2025.
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Oran Leong - Aerialist
Tara Dunne - Fiddle player & songstress
Hailing from county Galway, Tara is a multi-award-winning fiddle player who has performed and toured nationally and internationally across the USA, UAE, UK, and Europe.
Tara’s background is in Irish Traditional music, achieving a 1st Class Honours in her Master’s at the University of Limerick. As a multitalented musician who is curious about new sound experiences, she has collaborated and performed across a multitude of other musical genres including classical, bluegrass, pop and rock. She performs regularly in some of Galway city’s most vibrant bars and venues with various bands and ensembles.
Tara spent a number of years as a fiddle teacher with Athenry Music School and taught
music in primary schools across Galway as well as delivering a series of workshops in the
University of Limerick. She has also trained as a Suzuki Violin Teacher (L,1/2) and is a
qualified primary school teacher.
An award winning set dancer, Tara now has a new found love in aerial dance which takes
her to the stage to perform in this magical show both as a musician and dancer.
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Fintan Sweeney - Production Manager
In 2018 Fintan began his work in theatre on lights, sound, production and stage management. Previously to this, he had been working within the ever-evolving tech world.
He has worked as a Production Manager with No Ropes Theatre company and in various freelance roles with Decadent Theatre, Druid, Macnas and Festivals such as Baboró, Galway Theatre Festival and the Galway International Arts Festival where he first met Fidget Feet and joined them in January 2022. He has also served on the Board of the Galway Theatre Festival and the Galway Giving Tree.
Gill Byrne - Head Rigger
Gill is a circus artist specializing in dance trapeze, hula hoops, and rigging. She firmly believes she’s at her best when her feet aren’t touching the ground, and has spent much of the last decade chasing this feeling.
She met Chantal at a showing of Handful of Dreams with the legendary Lucy Medlycott, and was quickly whisked off to the covid-special edition of the IADF.
“With the support and guidance of Chantal, and the magical community in Fidget Feet and the IACC, Gill has been able to pursue dreams that she didn’t think were possible. This aerial family changed everything.”
Gill is one of the head riggers on our When the Moon Spun Round
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Bryan Donaldson - Head Rigger
Originally from New Zealand, Bryan worked and toured worldwide as an aerial artist touring circuses as part of Duo Vertigo. Now UK-Ireland based aerial/circus rigging consultant & teacher with HP Rigging.
José Portillo - Rigger
José Portillo is originally from Argentina and now living and working in Ireland. José has worked on many a production with Fidget Feet. Such as House!, A Handful of Dreams and When the Moon Spun Round. He also works as a lighting technician and has carried out his work with Circus Gerbola and Circo Del Anima.
Sebastian Pizarro - Lighting Designer
Sebastian started his career in Spain working at cinema productions “Le Pettite Regne” in 2007.
He graduated in “Production for Theatre, Tv and Cinema” in 2011 at “Garcia Berlanga” and “Ciudad de la Luz Studios” with outstanding marks that granted him a sponsorship from the EU that brought him to Dublin, Ireland. Since then he has been working in the lighting field becoming a Lighting Designer and Artist.
His most recent designs include, “The Table” (Branar), “When the Moon Spun Round” (Fidget Feet) “Wonderground” & “The Land of a Hundred Little Hills” (Ceol Connected), “Paper Plane” & “Adoleta” (Little Lion Productions), “Fall & Float” (Monica Muñoz Choreography), “Mother of Pearl” (Emily Aoibheann), “Making Waves” (Jess Roswell Dance), “The Chronic Identity Crisis of Pamplemousse” (Northern Ireland Opera),” Boy With a Suitcase” (Barnstorm Theatre), “In Vena Cava” (Ella Clarke Choreography), “Conversations Across Time” (DumbWorld), “The Hangmen” Collaboration with Ciaran Bagnall (Gaiety Productions).
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Tomás Donaghy - Sound Engineer
Tomás works as a sound and stage technician with over 10 years experience in the industry. A keen interest in the technical side of productions and a passion for making things sound good.
Paul Shriek - Costume Designer
Paul graduated with a First Class Honours Degree from Newcastle Polytechnic. He established the Paul Shriek name in 1980 launching his Limited Edition label in 1981. He continues to work in fashion, dance, theatre, contemporary circus, rock music and education.
His work has rewarded him with an international appreciation and respect for his vision. He has successfully worked with: Welsh National Opera; Diversions Dance Company; Cois Ceim Dance Theatre; Scottish Dance Theatre; The Customs House; balletLORENT; Dodgy Clutch; Virtual Motion; the BalletBoyz; Seven Stories; Drapes Aerians la Baule and Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre.
Lali Morris - Dramaturg
Lali Morris studied in Chicago at a teacher’s college which afforded her the opportunity to work for the Department of Performing Arts where she learnt first hand about programming, fundraising, delivery and even directing productions for Young Audiences.
In 1994 Lali visited a very sunny Ireland where she met Trish Forde, Artistic Director of Galway Arts Festival and Jean Parkinson, coordinator of Baboró. Lali went on to teach a series of workshops for children at Barboró and between 2001 – 2015 took on her very successful role as Artistic Director at Barboró.
Lali Morris has a long-standing history with Fidget Feet. When Fidget Feet was creating their show Catch Me. Lali and Chantal began their journey together. Lali Morris took Chantal under her wing and mentored Chantal in creating shows for young audiences. Since then Lali has been a very important figure with Fidget Feet in their making of work for young audiences.
With When the Moon Spun Round it was really important to Chantal and Thomas to bring Lali into the creative process as Dramaturg. It has been a beautiful collaboration and the relationship and support will continue to flourish in the future.
Orla Kelly - Set Designer
Órla Kelly is a visual artist and director of Early Childhood Creativity. Her practice focuses on early years children, aiming to stimulate and support their naturally creative, poetic, philosophical and curious intelligences. Working on When The Moon Spun Round has been a dream, supporting the vision of Chantal and Thomas, and offering a subtle visual tone for the free imagination of the young audiences to inhabit while they experience this dynamic show.
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Olwen Fouéré - Narrator
Olwen Fouéré is an Irish actress from Galway and writer/director in theatre, film and visual arts. In 2020, she was listed at number 22 on The Irish Times list of Ireland’s greatest film actors.
As a freelance actress, Fouéré works internationally in English and French with numerous appearances at the Abbey Theatre, the Gate Theatre in Ireland, the Royal National Theatre in England, the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, at Brooklyn Academy of Music New York, Sydney Theatre Company Australia and Shakespeare Theatre Company, DC.
She is the founder of Operating Theatre, an avant-garde theatre company with composer Roger Doyle. Her development of the artistic entity The Emergency Room has allowed Olwen to create her ongoing projects which have included the creation of her internationally acclaimed RiverRun, her staging of Lessness by Samuel Beckett, her translation and production of Danse, Morob, written for her by the French writer Laurent Gaudé and her translation and performances of Sodome, My Love (in association with Rough Magic) also by Laurent Gaudé; a film project co-directed by Kevin Abosch from a script by Anne Enright titled Cassandra: fragments of a playscript.
Jym Daly - Music and Projection Designer
Jym studied at the Crawford Municipal (Cork Art School). In London, Jym attracted the attention of London’s avant-garde scene by playing kitchen sinks along with Chinese violins in nightclubs like Camden Palace.
Never feeling any one art form to be fully satisfactory, Jym later found himself involved in the development of a new sound which combined spiritual music from around the world with the emerging world of dance beats. Loop Guru toured the world for many years leaving a rich legacy of albums. During that time Jym also created videos for the band and created a cartoon which ran in a national music magazine. His eclectic artistic past has now culminated in Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre, co-founded with his wife Chantal McCormick, where music, film, dance, acting and swinging boats off cranes co-exist peacefully in one expression.
Kara Moore - Communications & Marketing Manager
Images taken by Jym Daly
Download the music
Image taken by Jym Daly
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Since 1998, Fidget Feet have created, established and nurtured the aerial dance sector in Ireland, and created international connections and collaborations. Over 35 shows have been created and toured in this time, ranging from indoor, outdoor, crane, and vertical dance performances around iconic Irish landmarks, shows for young audiences, community development regionally, professional development through establishing Ireland’s first aerial dance festival and training center. These performances and opportunities take place throughout the country to make the art form accessible to all.
Visit Who We Are to find out more
Ceol Connected creates beguiling and gloriously joyful work for children that draws inspiration and intrigue from the world of traditional arts. Their work includes gig theatre productions, sensory arts experiences for children with additional needs and Tradoodle Festival, Ireland’s only traditional arts festival for children.
Visit ceolconnected.ie to find out more
WHAT IS AERIAL DANCE?
It’s Dance! It’s Creative! It’s flying with style! Combining athleticism & creative expression. While using low-hanging trapeze, aerial silks, spirals, hoops & cocoons. A beautiful art form, while having fun and building strength!
Wanna try it out?
Our Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick provides workshops, kids classes, adult classes & bootcamps.