Matt Szczerek - Dance Residency Year 1 Review

03 December 2024

Dance Artist in Residence 2024

We caught up with Matt Szczerek as his first year as Dance Artist in Residence comes to an end.

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"My time at Draíocht this year as Dance Artist in Residence was very fruitful and fulfilling. I feel like the time given to me to develop the first version of the show 'Monsters' was such a luxury. It gave me space to make changes based on kids feedback, after performances of the work in progress took place in local schools. After considering everyone's input and learning about what's scary to the kids, from the creatures they see on TV, to the jump scares they prank each other with, I could implement all these ideas into the show.

Dublin 15 has such a great and sophisticated audience. Kids are confident and imaginative and that contributed hugely to the show's development. Alessio Motta's acrobatic skills helped to bring the impressive performance to life and WOW the crowd of excited children. Jack Foster made an amazing soundscape that makes your skin crawl, but also added humour in the soundtrack which played a huge role in relief of that tension.

The arc of the piece is now established and I'm very happy with it. I can't thank enough the staff of Draíocht for always supporting me along the way and making sure I got everything I needed in order to make my vision come to life! I can't wait for Year 2!"

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Stay tuned for more news as Matt continues his Dance Residency into 2025 and further develops his new work 'Monsters'.

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Artist Profiles

Matt Szczerek

Mateusz Szczerek is a Dublin based dance artist and professional member of Dance Ireland. Matt is an artistic director for Irish based company Human Collective and choreographer for International Circus/Dance company Kundle Cru.

His recent work includes, Palimpsest - choreographed by David Bolger, CoisCeim Dance Theatre, premiered at The Complex in March 2024. Mortal Business, development new work with choreographer Jonathan Mitchel in January 2024.

Matt is an artist in residence at Draiocht for the year 2024, researching dance piece for and with participation of young audiences from Dublin 15 and surrounding areas.

RSS Digital Commission 2023 at The Civic as a lead artist premiered mix media piece using animation, dance and VR technology at Dublin Fringe Festival 2023 called Matt & Hat.

Matt has choreographed dance/circus production called Blame Game produced by Crying Out Loud, piece toured internationally in Germany, Netherlands, UK and Ireland. Currently developing new work with Kundle Cru called BIRDS as part of Arts Grant Funding 2024.

Matt also continues to curate Dance2Connect LAB, a 5 days development program for dancers with International mentors. Matt toured Ireland with over 50 performances of “Up-Close” in 2022 choreographed by Monica Munoz and recently received offer of being one of the lead artists for NEST project at Drioght Theatre.

In 2019 he was selected to be part of The Lir’s LIGHTING DESIGN FOR DANCE mentored by Liz Roche.
In 2018 Mateusz choreographed FABLE for Dublin Fringe Festival nominated for best ensemble award. Same year he was selected as an artist in residence for Rua Red gallery.
Matt worked with CoisCeim Dance Theatre performing as a principal dancer in THE WOLF & PETER (2017 Sydney Opera House). In 2017 he was selected by Far From The Norm dance company as a lead Irish artist in international production UNION BLACK, funded by Creative Europe touring UK, France, Sweden, Ireland.

Alessio Motta

With a fundamental background in theater and street dance at the "Associação Cultural e Desportiva Magdaleine G," complemented by training in Tae Kwon Do, Capoeira, and Parkour, Alessio embarked on an artistic exploration journey. Venturing into the Scuola di Cirko Vertigo in Turin, he honed his skills in acrobatic dance and Chinese pole over two years. This pursuit of mastery led him to complete the Bachelor's program in Circus at the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm (DOCH/SKH).

Jack Foster

Jack Foster is Dublin born freelance pianist, composer, music producer, sound designer, audio mixer and artist manager living and working in Dublin.

To date he has composed scores and mixed audio for RTE featured documentaries such as THE BUSK (raising money for SIMON Community) and Origins: The Story of Irish Hip Hop, and for countless online brand pieces for business such as Irish Life and TG4, scored feature length films such as Douglas Reddan’s “The 38th House on the Left.”

He has also produced music for up and coming Hip Hop and Spoken Word artist Adam Mohamed, with tracks including the viral sensation, 'Untitled' and his debut Hip Hop single, 'Me & i.'

In 2021 Jack along with his business partner Mark Logan, set up an independent record label and artist management company called Audio Department Records.

Through this company they represent Adam Mohamed, Jena Keating and the band BIG LOVE. Their artists have secured and will be playing festivals throughout the country such as Forbidden Fruit, All Together Now and Doolin Folk Festival.

In 2021 Jack also completed his debut album, ' I loved you in F,' which he scored, recorded and mixed himself and released through his label, Audio Department Records.

Over the course of 2022 and 2023 he has worked on Douglas Reddan’s Debut Feature Film. Jack Composed an original score, original sound design and sound mixed the entire film. The film had a premiere in late
April in the Ifi Cinema in Dublin.

Jack is currently working on his next album which he hopes to release in Summer 2024

Matt Szczerek's Dance Residency 2024 in Draíocht is supported by The Arts Council, with additional funding provided by Fingal County Council & Draíocht.

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Artist Profiles

Matt Szczerek

Alessio Motta

Jack Foster

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