Rivers Remember

Rivers Remember

Northern Ireland–India Contemporary Dance Residency

Rivers Remember was an international contemporary dance residency and performance bringing together acclaimed Indian Odissi dancer and choreographer Kavita Dwibedi and Northern Ireland contemporary dance artists Sarah Favelle and Maeve McGreevy, with the work directed by Nicola Curry, the Artistic Director of Maiden Voyage Dance.

Developed by ArtsEkta in partnership with PK Foundation and Maiden Voyage Dance, the project created a space for artistic exchange between classical Indian and contemporary dance practice, exploring how movement can carry stories of culture, place, identity and belonging.

Inspired by the rivers of Ireland and India, Rivers Remember began with the idea that, just as rivers carry traces of the landscapes through which they travel, our bodies carry memories of the places, cultures and experiences that shape us.

Rather than seeking to fuse two dance traditions, the residency invited the artists to explore what happens when distinct movement languages meet — finding moments of connection, difference, challenge and discovery.

The Residency

Over an intensive week in Belfast, Nicola, Sarah, Kavita, Maeve and the creative team worked together through movement research, choreographic experimentation and artistic exchange.

Kavita brought the rich movement vocabulary of Odissi, one of India’s classical dance traditions, into dialogue with Sarah and Maeve’s contemporary dance practice.

Through gesture, rhythm, storytelling, improvisation and choreography, the artists explored themes including:

• memory and embodied knowledge
• landscape and belonging
• tradition and contemporary practice
• cultural inheritance
• movement across borders
• rivers as places of connection and change

Rivers Remember at the Lyric Theatre

The residency culminated in a special work-in-progress performance at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, sharing the emerging Rivers Remember choreography with audiences for the first time.

The performance offered audiences an insight into the creative encounter between Odissi and contemporary dance and the new movement language beginning to emerge through the collaboration.

Rather than presenting a finished production, the sharing invited audiences into the artistic process itself — experiencing a new international collaboration at an important stage in its development.

The performance was followed by a post-show conversation with the artists and creative team, exploring the residency process, embodied memory, intercultural choreographic practice and the future possibilities for the work.

A Continuing Journey

Rivers Remember was developed as an artistic enquiry rather than an endpoint.

The residency opened new conversations about how traditional and contemporary practices can meet respectfully, how cultural knowledge is carried through the body, and how international exchange can create new possibilities for artists in Northern Ireland and India.

The project also built on ArtsEkta and PK Foundation’s growing Northern Ireland–India cultural partnership and created a foundation from which further artistic exchange and development of Rivers Remember can grow.

Where movement carries memory.

Project Partners

Rivers Remember was produced by ArtsEkta in partnership with PK Foundation and Maiden Voyage Dance, with sector engagement supported by Theatre and Dance NI.

The project was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through National Lottery funding.