Launching today and running until 20 June, Light Ballet, presented as part of Brightening Air, will transform the skies and surrounding landscape of eight counties with a light installation floating down the River Shannon over eight days. Light Ballet will be visible from up to seven kilometres and covering almost two hundred kilometres. The journey begins each night from dusk (approx 10.15 pm) starting off in Co Roscommon on June 13 and travels through Leitrim, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Tipperary, Clare, ending its journey in Co Galway. Light Ballet is presented as part of Brightening Air | Coiscéim Coiligh, a nationwide, ten-day season of arts experiences brought to you by the Arts Council, for June 2021
Created by Irish Light Artist Mick Murray and Lighting Designer Matthew Cregan, the installation is accompanied by a newly composed soundscape by David Kitt. The light installation and soundscape are synchronised in real-time allowing audiences to experience the soundscape at home, along the edgelands or those in-between places through their phones, tablets or computers. Audiences will be able to access the soundscape via the Culture Works (https://cultureworks.ie/light-ballet/) and Brightening Air (https://brighteningair.com/experiences/light-ballet) website from June 13. The artwork will run on a seven minute cycle for four hours each night from dusk and the full show cycle can be seen at any point along the route.
The newly composed soundscape by David Kitt uses a familiar Irish musical time signature, intermixed with words from Poet Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe and Kitts own vocal. David Kitt brings us on a journey through, river, ‘spirit land’ and the surrounds. Once entwined, these lands, the people, the river and their connection in music, words and song deliver us to a new place, a spiritual journey along the river through its edgelands, to a familiar place. Drawing inspiration from William Butler Yeats’s own Song of Wandering Aengus, the soundscape for Light Ballet was created by David Kitt, with words from Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe’s poem Wandersong in collaboration with Mick Murray and Matthew Cregan.
For regular updates and to experience Light Ballet digitally, follow Light Ballet on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and at https://cultureworks.ie/light-ballet/ or Via https://brighteningair.com/.
For those who do not get to experience the artwork in person, Light Ballet’s journey will be Live Streamed as well as being documented and shared online afterwards.
