New Michael Keegan-Dolan Show Comes To Sadler's Wells Next Month

Choreographer and Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Michael Keegan-Dolan will bring back his company Teaċ Daṁsa to Sadler's Wells Theatre from Wednesday 27 November – Saturday 30 November.  
 
This marks their comeback after the acclaimed Mám, with a new creation co-produced by Sadler's Wells and a London premiere. Nobodaddy (Tríd an bpoll gan bun) is an inventive take on a William Blake poem created from the company's home of Gaeltacht, in Ireland's West Kerry. 

 

Nobodaddy is an affecting large-scale dance and theatre ritual for a company of nine dancers and six musicians. The piece brings together familiar and new collaborators, including renowned folk singer and musician Sam Amidon. A singer and multi-instrumentalist specialising in banjo, guitar and fiddle, Amidon has released seven acclaimed solo albums and performed as a guest artist with notable musicians such as Bon Iver, Ganavya, The National and more.

Keegan-Dolan brings his signature style of contemporary dance to Nobodaddy, alongside a close-knit company that has envisioned, rehearsed and created the show together over eight weeks in Kerry. A multi-disciplinary piece, Nobodaddy features dancers incorporating singing into their work, as well as musicians performing live on stage.

The English Romantic poet William Blake had already conjured up the name Nobodaddy – an anagram of “Old daddy Nobody” or “Nobody's daddy” – by 1798, the year of the United Irish Men's non-sectarian rebellion against the injustices of British rule in Ireland. 
 
While Blake's Nobodaddy was the name of a destructive divinity who appears in several of his notebook poems, Teaċ Daṁsa's Nobodaddy is an ode to the peacemakers and the bringers of good things. 
 
Then old Nobodaddy aloft 
Farted & belchd & coughd 
And said I love hanging & drawing & quartering 
Every bit as well as war & slaughtering 
William Blake (1793) 
 
Michael Keegan-Dolan said: “In the spring of 2020, I was working with Sam Amidon for the first time, on a new creation, The Only Tune. But the world changed, and it never made it to the stage. We come back together to present Nobodaddy, after a few very special weeks in Ireland, spent bringing the show to life. I am looking forward to coming back to Sadler's Wells to show what we are about: a group of artists who care about coming together, singing and sharing good stories. And above all, a group who cares about dancing.” 

 
The creation of Nobodaddy was funded by the Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon Open Call, and is a co-production of An Droichead for Belfast 2024, Dublin Theatre Festival, Abbey Theatre, and Sadler's Wells.

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