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If the pandemic gave us one thing, it might be a reminder to deeply appreciate every in-person gathering. This struck me while watching Jean Butler’s What We Hold, which unites a varied cast of all ages, skilled in a range of dance genres (but all in Irish step on some level).
The critically acclaimed site-specific work was re-designed and re-staged for New York’s stunning Irish Arts Center.
The antidote to her star-making turn in “Riverdance,” Jean Butler embraces Irish dance history and modernity in “What We Hold."
For Irish dancers, “Riverdance” was cataclysmic. That 1995 production took a form of cultural heritage and, by making it sexier and showier,
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Themes of retrieval and transformation abound in What We Hold, which premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2022