Welcome to this week's episode of In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, a special series of our podcast dedicated to interviewing astounding artists who have hailed from Roscommon or who are based here at home.
In these interviews we will be talking to actors, theatre-makers, drama facilitators, comedians, writers, directors, poets, producers, a dancer and a weaver. We will discuss how they started in their profession, obstacles they have faced, how they have been impacted by the pandemic, the importance of creativity in their lives, their influences, how they stay motivated to keep creating and most importantly how you, the listener, can support their work. We are keen to make our audiences all around the world aware of the constant stream of Roscommon-based creative work. We also hope this series will encourage some of you to support local art, recognise its necessity and maybe even pursue some creative endeavours of your own.
This series comes to you thanks to the generous support of Roscommon County Council who have kindly commissioned this series and endorsed us with the necessary equipment and software to record the interviews safely and remotely during the Summer of 2021.
This week we are joined by Mintesinot Wolde, a contemporary dancer, choreographer, teacher, member of Dance Ireland and Artist Panelist for Roscommon County Council. He first started his professional training in Traditional and African Contemporary dance from the African Dance School in Senegal and holds an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the Irish World Academy of Music & Dance at UL. He presented a new dance piece ’See you in the Green’ on Roscommon Arts Centre’s website in January and February of 2021. He was awarded dance residencies at Roscommon Arts Centre, Dance Ireland, and Shawbrook in 2020. Mintesinot is based in County Roscommon and established the first dance company in the county where he continues creating dance pieces alongside working with other dance artist associates in Ireland. For the past few years, he worked with IMDT on ‘Dances for Inside and Outside’ and ‘Bloodlines’ directed by John Scott. In this interview Minte talks us through his artistic process of creating choreography through improvisation and different dance styles and techniques he has learned on his journey as a dancer. He shares with us how dance is an integral part of African culture and how he encourages his ensemble to bring their own culture, language, dance style and personality to the performance piece. He talks us through See you in the Green, which captures feelings of loss, loneliness, violence and racial injustice faced by so many around the world in 2020. Minte combined different styles of dance, music, natural sound, lighting techniques, and interesting elements such as ash to create an incredible audience-experience. In this interview we go deeper into what it means to witness dance and to unleash the primal instinct in all of us to move and to express ourselves through movement.
You can find Mintesinot on his website at www.mintedancestudio.com . From 3pm today, September 17, you can catch See you in the Green which is available for three days on Roscommon Arts Centre’s website.
LINK: https://roscommonartscentre.ie/event/culture-night-21-see-you-in-the-green/
If you’re around Roscommon town tonight, you can see 'At The Castle' at 9 pm at Roscommon Castle. This will be a live performance multimedia show involving dancers, musicians, film, projections and lighting spectacle.
LINK: https://roscommonartscentre.ie/event/culture-night-21-at-the-castle/
Make sure to tune in next week to hear from Catherine Sheridan, writer, drama facilitator and artistic director of Roscommon County Youth Theatre.
You can hear more from us and our interviewees on our Instagram, @infairnesspod, same on Twitter, and In Fairness Podcast on Facebook. Feel free to get in touch on any of these platforms with any questions or suggestions that you may have for us. Don’t forget to rate and review our podcast if you’re listening on Acast or Itunes, it really does go a long way. Share us on your stories and tell your friends about us to help the artists in this series get the promotion they deserve.
Thank you again to Roscommon County Council and Rhona McGrath for their support in helping us create this series, and to our wonderful mentor Catherine Sheridan for keeping us in check and bringing us both together at the very beginning of our journey. You have been listening to In Fairness Inquire: Roscommon Artists, Research and questions by Molly Mew, Sound engineering, editing and producing by Misha Fitzgibbon, thank you so much for listening.
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