REVERB performs at The Civic as part of Dublin Fringe Festival

MOVEMENT and melody collide in an electrifying celebration of legacy, live music, and movement by choreographer Sarah Golding at the Civic Theatre with music by multi-instrumentalist Lisa Canny.

This high-energy performance of ‘REVERB’ by Luail – Ireland’s National Dance Company, combines powerful physicality with spellbinding vocals and composition, exploring the ways in which our actions ripple through time and leave their mark.

With Canny’s signature mix of traditional and modern sounds driving the dancers, every beat tells a powerful story, blending past and present in a raw, emotional experience.

Get ready for a performance where rhythm lives, tradition breathes, and every moment and movement resonates.

‘REVERB’ performs at the Civic from September 11 to 12 as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival; check the Civic website for more details and booking information.

Choreographer Sarah Golding and composer Lisa Canny spoke with The Echo this week about the origin of their collaboration, their creative process, and creating work for Luail—Ireland’s new national and all-island dance company.

Can you tell us about your work with Luail – Ireland’s National Dance Company?

Sarah: I was approached by Luail in 2024, to choreograph a new dance piece containing a live music element for their inaugural year.

I had worked on a piece earlier that year for Luail’s partner, the Belfast-based dance company Maiden Voyage Dance, and ‘REVERB’ has taken a lot of inspiration from that piece.

It has been a real pleasure working with Luail in its inaugural year. It all still feels really new, and there’s such a great buzz around; I feel like I’m part of helping Luail to build its narrative for the future.

Tell us a bit about the story behind ‘REVERB’, please!

Sarah: I saw Lisa at her album launch at a tiny church in London, and I remember thinking, “she is electric; I HAVE to collaborate with this person.” We had mutual friends, so I knew it was possible. When the opportunity came to make a new piece for Luail – the fact that I was going to be in Ireland and that there was going to be a live-music element to this piece – it felt like the moment to bring Lisa into the project.

What is ‘REVERB’ about?

Sarah: ‘REVERB’ is about how memories change over time.

When Lisa and I first had that discussion, we chatted about how when you experience something, and then when you recall it, the memory has already changed or shifted in some way… so Lisa and

I felt that the next progression of this would be to explore how we share memories and tell stories.

Lisa: I suppose one of the main feelings we wanted to go with, for me when I was writing the music, was the idea of joyous types of movement.

That was really important for both of us; we wanted it to be the sharing of joy, and we wanted people to feel uplifted.

That has been the theme of our collaboration

What processes have been involved in production so far?

Sarah: Creating ‘REVERB’, we looked at the ways that you share legacy and stories, what setting does that happen in? Is it a social gathering?

Is it at a party; is it privately; is it quietly; is it loudly?

What do these different moments of sharing look like?

When I thought about this, what I started to make physically felt a lot like reverb – the repetition of stories told through the body – and I feel like the identity of this music is such a clear response to this.

Lisa: Yes, I was following the flow of it and not overthinking it or trying to create anything in particular, and then you end up with whatever comes naturally.

Also bringing Josh and Laura to come in and play them live.

The music kind of has a lot of opposing ideas.

There’s a lot of juxtaposition going on throughout the whole soundtrack between Irish instruments and Irish melodies.

Obviously it’s very influenced by trad, and then with these loops that I was finding on splice or online, I was chopping up a bit, and they definitely weren’t Trad or from the Irish music scene at all.

And to use those elements to create the music and then bring them to Laura and Josh and actually play some of those loops, but on a fiddle and in an Irish way, brings another element of interest to it.

So, it’s like it got its foundation in Trad, but it’s just like a world of sounds, a world of other feelings.

Sarah: This is a really ambitious production featuring a cast of seven and three musicians all performing live on stage together, so there are many moving parts, all of this will be brought to life with stunning stage design by Katie Davenport and costumes by LaurA Fajardo Castro.

What is next for Luail after the performances in the Civic? Are there any more events or performances planned this year?

Sarah: ‘REVERB’ will tour eight venues across the island of Ireland this September and October, moving from Civic and then onto Armagh, Dundalk, Kildare, Mayo (Lisa’s home county), Longford, Sligo and Limerick.

Straight after the tour of ‘REVERB’, Luail will present Dancehall, a revival of a 10 year old work by Emma Martin with music composed by Andrew Hamilton performed by Crash Ensemble.

Inspired by Ireland’s Public Dance Halls Act, this work revels in the powerful simplicity and raw humanity of the dancehall, a space where freedom, resistance and individuality unapologetically meet in messy, sweaty, chaotic joy.

Dancehall will tour to six venues across Ireland this October – opening the Belfast International Arts Festival on October 15th before moving onto Donegal, Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick…

Who would you like to thank for helping to organise these performances?

Sarah: Maiden Voyage Dance has been instrumental in making this collaboration between Luail, myself and Lisa possible.

Luail’s incredible production team, Liz Roche, the Artistic Director of Luail, and Miranda Driscoll, who is producing the entire show and tour; and of course Luail’s extraordinary ensemble of dancers and musicians, Laura Doherty and Josh Sampson, who will perform with Lisa and the dancers on stage.