It was an honour to participate in Global Irish Studies ‘Ulysses in the World’ Symposium at Georgetown University, Washington DC at the weekend. I was part of the opening ‘Joyce and Dance’ roundtable discussion on Saturday morning with Michelle Clayton of Brown University, and choreographer Liz Roche. On Friday night we attended the world premiere of Liz’s extraordinary choreographic response to Ulysses “Yes and Yes” at Atlas Arts in collaboration with Solas Nua. Liz’s groundbreaking choreography was launched by HE Geraldine Byrne-Nason, the new Irish Ambassador to the United States, who also attended the symposium on Saturday. It was a wonderful day of thought-provoking and insightful presentations from top thinkers and Joyceans around the seemingly inexhaustible topic of Ulysses, 100 years after its publication. The day was expertly organised by Cóilín Parsons and Mary Turkot, and you can watch back the full day’s proceedings above, if of interest. A cornucopia of food for thought!
Of course we were lucky to get a glimpse into Liz’s choreographic process for “Yes & Yes” in progress when she spoke to us in one of our #Ulysses80 virtual Ulysses book club zoom chats over the summer:
Irish audiences will get a chance to see “Yes & Yes” at Dublin’s Project Theatre in November.