Music for Galway and Galway Dance have joined forces for this year’s Midwinter Festival which celebrates the music of Maurice Ravel. Behind the scenes, the directors of these groups, Anna Lardi Kristyn Fontanella, are campaigning for a joint space so they can continue to grow and develop. They tell JUDY MURPHY why it’s needed.

Kristyn Fontanella has performed all over the world with Riverdance, Lord of the Dance and Gaelforce Dance, and she knows more than most the importance of having a proper, sprung timber floor underneath you as you make your intricate moves and high kicks.

A graduate of the Masters in Dance programme at the University of Limerick, where she now teaches, Kristyn is the current director of Galway Dance, a group founded in 2011 to promote dance in the West of Ireland.

She took over the role in November 2023, and since then, she and the Executive Director of Music for Galway  Anna  Lardi have joined forces in a campaign to bring proper music and dance facilities to the area.

They are seeking a dedicated space to serve the needs of these two thriving organisations, which have been operating for years without adequate resources.

Anna and Kristyn point out that while Galway has a reputation for the arts, there is no venue specifically designed for music performances – music requires a different acoustic to theatre – and definitely no dance space, with a sprung floor to minimise potential injuries as people practise and perform.

“Music and dance are natural partners,” they agree, as they explain that since Kristyn took over as Director of Galway Dance a year ago, the groups have co-operated on various projects, continuing a relationship that started in 2015. The most recent of these collaborations will come to fruition later this month in Music for Galway’s Midwinter Festival. This year’s event, which runs from January 17-19 is a celebration of the renowned French composer (1875-1937) and concerts will include a special performance of his renowned Boléro for piano duet and dance, which will close the festival.

François-Xavier Poizat and Finghin Collins will be on piano for that, while locally based dance artist, choreographer and musician Aneta Dortová will perform the response that she has been preparing. Aneta’s work focuses on the relationship between live music and dance, the intersection of traditional and contemporary dance and on improvisation, Kristyn explains.

“In her world, music and dance are intertwined.”

It would have been impossible to celebrate the music of Maurice Ravel without including the Boléro, adds Anna.

This piece was originally written as a ballet, but usually performed as an orchestral piece. However, French choreographer Maurice Béjart created a version for dancers, which she loves.

“When we decided to bring Boléro to the piano with four hands, we turned to our friends in Galway Dance to create a response and Kristyn said yes.”

For Kristyn, this was only natural.

“These art forms are meant to work alongside each other.”

Even before US-born Kristyn had moved to Galway to head up the dance group, the two organisations had been working together, campaigning for a dedicated space.

“We were all excited about Galway 2020,” says Anna, recalling the heady days of 2016 when Galway won the designation of European Capital of Culture and it seemed this dream could become a reality.

The excitement was short-lived, however, as Galway 2020 lurched from crisis to crisis and was finally undone by Covid-19 lockdowns. It left very little by way of a legacy and certainly no badly needed arts buildings. The groups were back to square one.

However, during Covid, the Arts Council introduced a series of capacity-building grants which supported organisations to develop strategies aimed at building new audiences. Anna recalls that the then director of Galway Dance, Jill Murray, suggested they submit a joint application, seeking money to do a feasibility study on the need for such a space.

Pictured: Galway is unusual in having three dancers in residence; Linda Schirmer, Bernadette Divilly and Magdalena Hylak. Linda and Bernadette are based in the county while Magdalena is in the city. PHOTO: BRIAN HARDING.