Q&A with Philip Connaughton – Rebellious Hope – Dublin Theatre Festival
Choreographer Phillip Connaughton brings seven internationally acclaimed performers aged from 46–86 years to join composer and musician Mel Mercier on stage for an electrifying new live work celebrating resilience, vulnerability and defiance – in the stage version of REBELLIOUS HOPE – he tells No More Workhorse about this new show, which premieres at Dublin Theatre Festival 2026:
Rebellious Hope was originally “made for film” in 2025. Can you tell me about this work you made alongside Luca Trufarelli and how it came about?
I turned 50 last year, and it became a moment when I started thinking seriously about how I was going to move forward into the future. As a dancer, I work in a very precarious world, and I started wondering: what happens when I’m 60 or 70 and I’m still working for terrible wages, with no real safety net, and trying to survive rising rents and the cost of living?
So I felt I needed to look at artists who inspired me and who were still working professionally as they aged. Together with my long-time collaborator Luca, I made a short docu-dance film about artists ranging from their mid-40s to their mid-80s. I wanted to understand how they continued, and what kept them going.
In many ways, the film gave me the answers I was looking for. But once it was finished, another question remained: I’d heard these artists talk about why they do what they do. Now I needed to see it—to put those ideas into a live work. And that’s what this new piece is about.
This work features Live music by Mel Mercer. What do you think having live music adds to a production?
I’m very happy for dancers to work in silence. The body is enough for me. But there’s something about bringing live sound into the space that supports, pushes and drives the movement. It creates an atmosphere, a world around the dancers, and the relationship can work both ways. So the movement responds to the music, but the music can respond to the movement. And we’re not working with just any composer. Mel Mercier is an incredibly talented and sensitive artist with a huge trajectory behind him, and it’s a real privilege to have him performing live with us. He’s working with live electronics as well as instruments, so the music is changeable. There are moments we know and recognise, but there are also moments where he can respond in the moment and take the music somewhere unexpected. So, I think that unpredictability is really exciting. It gives the dancers another presence to work with, and it creates something that can only happen in that particular performance.
The production features dancers aged 46 to 86. Can I hazard a guess that Joanna Banks might be involved? Can you tell the readers a little about her history in dance?
Yes, Joanna Banks is part of the production. She was in the film and is our most experienced cast member, with an extraordinary career that spans both classical and contemporary dance. Jo and I have known and worked with each other for around 30 years. When I first finished my training and started working in Dublin with John Scott, who’s also in this work, Joanna and I were dancing together. Since then, she has had an incredible career, performing with companies including the Royal Ballet, Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ballet Rambert, and Cork City Ballet. After her classical career, she moved into contemporary dance and has continued to develop as an artist ever since. What inspires me most is her constant curiosity and drive to keep learning and finding new ways of doing things. She has never devalued her body or stopped seeing it as a dancing body. She may not be able to move through the space in the same way she once did, but she’s spent a lifetime honing the skills of a performer, and she has an extraordinary ability to hold an audience. I feel incredibly lucky to be working with her again. She’s a very special artist and a huge part of this company.
Is this mix of ages important to the production?
Sure. Yes, and I think that makes it even more important. The whole company is already an older company by conventional standards. There are seven dancers ranging from 46 to 86, each at a different stage of their life and their body. I think what’s exciting is seeing that range of experience and physicality in one company. The body carries so much history, and you really see that in the way these artists move and make choices. As you get older, you sometimes have to find different pathways to achieve something. Force isn’t always an option, so you have to become more considered, more precise, more intelligent in the way you use your body. I think that’s beautiful. I love the strength, vitality and sheer physicality of younger dancers, but there is a different kind of vitality in the older body. Having all these ages together makes that visible. It gives the movement a depth and a richness you wouldn’t get from a company of dancers, all at the same stage of life.
This is being performed in the Project Cube, which is an unusual space for a Dance production. Can you explain the choice or why it’s suited for the work?
I think the most interesting idea is that contrast between the intimacy of the cube and the expansion these performers can create. I like that Irish trad connection too, that sense of being close to the performer and sharing the space. That intimacy really excites me. Audience close, in the round, watching these artists somehow make the space feel much bigger than it actually is.
This production is part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Will you get to see any other works during the festival, or will you be too busy with your own work?
I’m really looking forward to Dan Colley’s Animals at the Abbey Theatre, as he’s one of my favourite directors, and Florentina Holzinger’s TANZ. I’m also a musical theatre freak, so I’m definitely looking forward to Xnthony’s Lourdes! The Musical. It’s a really exciting programme this year, and those are definitely some of my highlights.
Rebellious Hope premieres at Project Arts Centre (Cube), 30 September – 4 October, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2026 – https://dublintheatrefestival.ie/event/rebellious-hope/
