The assembled crowd were not sure quite what they were about to see. The piece was inspired by visual artist Maria Simonds-Gooding’s exhibition which is currently showing in the RHA. The dancers and musician involved had spent time at the exhibition and according to the pamphlet were about to ‘tease out, confront and instantly compose each other’s gathered discoveries – creating a rapidly shifting improvised performance’.

There was no announcement that the show was about to begin. Three dancers slowly entered the space, barefoot and aloof. They started to move and dance, sometimes together and sometimes apart. At times they pushed their way through the audience and at other times they found space to run and bound. The sounds of fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh slowly started to resonate, as he played somewhere in the bowels of the building. He gradually made his was up to the main gallery and found the rest of the performers. He was deliberately not playing full pieces, only fragments or snippets, falling apart as soon as they would emerge much like the dancers themselves.

The hushed and perplexed audience laughed as the dancers moved through the gallery as if they were not there, dancing in the middle of them and sometimes forcing the audience to move to allow them to pass. It was great to see the many children in the audience, and it was obvious that many had never seen anything like this. A unique way to spend the afternoon.

The Fourteenth Visit was a free event as part of the Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival in the RHA Dublin.