Westmeath's Robyn Byrne: Bringing order to chaos

It’s a busy time for dancer and choreographer Robyn Byrne. Later this year the Mullingar native will be joining Luail, Ireland’s all-island dance company.

The company’s goal is to promote and support dance across the island and the talented dancer will become part of an ensemble that comprises dancers from north and south of the border.

“I started dancing in Mullingar, in an after-school hall with a woman called Catharine Louw. She runs a school in Longford called Shawbrook. I ended up going there four times a week,” Robyn recalls.

The commitment to dance was more than just Robyn’s: “My mam had to learn how to drive to bring me down to Longford. I stuck with it to the point where I went to the UK to study dance. I moved home in 2017. That was when my career just took off.”

The life path is not the easiest to follow: “In Ireland it can be difficult to have a career as a dancer. There aren’t enough companies to get full time work, so you have to expand what you’re up to.

“I got into choreography and movement directing, working across film and theatre, not just in dance. I was at home for a while, teaching in Mullingar Arts Centre.”

Being selected to be a part of Luail is a defining career moment: “It’s definitely a vocation, you’re not really in it for the money, but in Ireland it’s much easier than in the UK because it’s less competitive. You can make a living.

“I’m looking forward to joining Ireland’s new national dance company. This is the first time Ireland will have salaried work for dancers. They started in November, but I’m joining in June, because I have other work commitments.”

The last time Robyn featured in the Westmeath Examiner was before the staging of her dance show called Queen of the Meadows. This time around she is provided the choreography from an intriguing new production by Rachel Ní Bhraonáin.

Mosh is a dance, a gig, and a theatrical shove into the heart of the pit. It’s the meaning behind the chaos.

Blending raucous dance, live music, interviews with real mosh pit devotees, and new writing, Mosh dives into the deeper meaning behind a misunderstood subculture.

“A lot of people who come to the show don’t know anything about it when they first come. Rachel is really interested in moshing,” Rachel said.

“Dancing is already such a physical expression, she felt like it was a good format to make a show about moshing and mosh pits,” she said.

“The show itself is like a dance theatre show – you follow different archetypes that you might find in a mosh pit. It gives a bit more of an understanding about what moshing is.”

The show incorporates lecture style presentation, voice overs and, of course, dance: “Different moshers talk about different gigs they’ve been at, what age they were, the camaraderie, and even the violence.”

In her role as choreographer, Robyn had to put order on chaos: “I guess it was challenging. If you can imagine something might happen in a mosh pit, like somebody might get their nose hit. We’ve built images around that, making it look like Renaissance painting.”

The show has a frenetic energy: “It’s not constantly moshing on stage because the dancers would get very tired very quickly. There are points where they are moshing, but also points where it is ordered because otherwise it would be very hard to make a full hour show where everybody’s just chaotic on stage,” Robyn said.

• Following an award winning sell-out run at Dublin Fringe Festival, Mosh embarks on a tour across Ireland up until July, and will be staged in Backstage Theatre, Longford on Wednesday June 11.