It was Saturday, 9 pm and my flight left Philly on time.  If all went well, I would sleep all the way to Dublin. Catching the Air Coach, I arrived at my City Centre hotel at 11am- exactly 3 hours too early for check in.  Suffering from a case of serious jet lag, I had two choices –  spend the next few hours investigating the local pubs or catch a Dublin Dance Festival performance by Spill.

“Spill” is a public art performance developed by the UK-based dance center DanceXchange.  For the past year, a troupe of dancers has been touring playgrounds in the UK and Ireland, incorporating the local terrain into their acrobatic performance.  Described as a “cheeky dance celebration for the child within” (1), Spill promised to be an unorthodox addition to the annual Dublin festival.

Everyone had told me that Ireland was the land of rain.  Bring your umbrella, buy a rain coat, wear your rubber boots, dress in layers….tales were told of the leather shoes that came unglued because of the constant wet.  But as I made my way to the #15 bus stop, carryon luggage in tow, the crystal blue skies and warm breeze promised a beautiful day for dancing.

Situated on the northeast edge of Dublin Centre, Fairview Park was ‘a wee bit’ of a bus ride and a considerable cultural distance from the tourist trap of Grafton Street.  As I entered the park, I noticed graffiti on surrounding buildings and tags on some of the playground equipment.  But a hurling game was in progress on the field behind the playground and boys kicked soccer balls to anyone who seemed willing to return the favor.  Children of all ages scampered over equipment as their parents claimed spectator turf at the edges of the enclosed playground.

At 1pm rhythmic music began pulsating from speakers ringing the play space. As an announcer introduced the Spill performers, he also pointed out to the onlookers that the Spill dancers were professionals and warned the children that they should not try the tricks themselves.  What followed was a 30-minute demonstration of physical grace and athletic skill as four dancers jumped, rolled and twirled through a performance that mimicked the rough and tumble of a childhood playground.

The performance was exuberant and clearly engaged the diverse audience.  Despite the cheerful mood of the performance, there was an underlying current running through the performance that I found troubling. The troupe, consisting of 3 men and a woman, embraced characterizations of childhood archetypes- the clown, the bully, the victim and the girl- yet offered no critique of these representations.  In fact, the storyline of the performance seemed organized around these archetypes, often playing the bully for laughs.  Waiting at the stop for the bus that would take me back to City Centre, I found myself hoping that, despite the many enjoyable aspects of the performance, parents in the audience might find this event to be a ‘teaching moment’. Kids, don’t try this at home.

LeAnn Erickson

1. http://www.dancexchange.org.uk/news/spill-a-playground-of-dance-2013-tour