We had the chance to put some questions to Mairead Buicke ahead of the opening of Divine Madness tomorrow at the Project Arts Centre. You can see the results below.

“Operatic soprano, Mairead Buicke, stars in irish modern dance theatre’s new show DIVINE MADNESS, a show that uses the glory and ecstasy of the great moments of Soprano arias placed in a world of dance.”

Irish Modern Dance Theatre Presents Divine Madness – Project Arts Centre
Dates: 13 Nov – 16 Nov – Show Time: 7.30pm

How long have you known John Scott? When did you first meet?  

I think John and I met about 18 years ago when we were both studying with the force that is Dr. Veronica Dunne (Ronnie)

Did you always intend to work together? 

As an Irish opera singer you always hope you get the opportunity to work alongside other Irish singers as it’s always a lovely thing so I suppose we are lucky we’ve now found ourselves exploring this particular work merging dance with opera, how innovative and exciting!

How did this production come about? 

John is working on a cycle of works based on dance and the singing voice. As well as being a choreographer/dancer, John is also an operatic tenor. He performed with Meredith Monk, the American Composer/Choreographer/Filmmaker in her masterpiece, ‘Quarry’. He is inspired by her description of her work as ‘singing body – dancing voice’. His dances are deeply connected to classical music. There is a physicality involved in singing and how a singer uses their body to produce effortless sound and how a dancer uses their breath to generate movement that we are all are connecting to – Soprano and dancers – in Divine Madness.

This sounds an unusual work which ‘explores the physicality of the soprano in the context of a dance’. Can you explain what the work is trying to achieve?

Opera/Classical singing is very physical and really in my opinion is a sport in it’s own right, I know that may sound far fetched but when one explores the physiology of singing and how the body works physically whilst singing it is very apparent it really is a sport! I have always had a huge interest in the physicality singing brings and I know John has also. So to mix the physicality of singing into dance is just wondrous!

John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre première their new show DIVINE MADNESS at Project Arts Centre Thursday 15 November (previews Wed 13) and runs  until Saturday 16 November – https://projectartscentre.ie/event/divine-madness.