Michelle Boule performing in Horrible Creature
Áine Stapleton is a dance artist and filmmaker from Ireland. Her work has a particular focus on biographical subjects, and since 2014, she has been developing film productions based on Lucia Joyce, daughter of Irish writer James Joyce (Ulysses). Her feature-length Arts Council-funded dance film, Horrible Creature, is based on Lucia's time in Switzerland. It premiered at the Irish Film Institute and recently screened at Riffraff Kino in Zurich, Kinoteka Belgrade in Serbia as part of the Belgrade Irish Festival's Irish Film Week, and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as part of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of Europe. Her most recent work, Somewhere in the Body, is a two-screen film installation funded by The Arts Council, Fondation Jan Michalski as a cultural partner, and Dublin City Council, and co-produced by Project Arts Centre and Dance Ireland. It premiered as a solo installation at Project Arts Centre in 2022 and screened as part of the Dublin Dance Festival. It was recently presented as a solo installation in June 2023 at Château Hornegg au Lac in Zurich, Switzerland, curated by Kunsthaus Aussersihl.
Prior to her work in film, Áine was a co-director, choreographer, and performer for live theatre with Fitzgerald and Stapleton Dance Theatre. The New Yorker described their work as “Touches deeper, stranger chords". She has been invited to speak about her work at various symposia, including ‘Women, War, and Peace’ and ‘Lucia Joyce: Perspectives’ at Trinity College Dublin, and recently at the University of Mainz in Germany, in partnership with The Consulate General of Ireland in Frankfurt.
Since 2008, Áine has produced and toured her solo and collaborative work in partnership with various international venues and organisations including; Abrons Arts Center in NYC, the Obie Award-winning Chocolate Factory Theatre in NYC, Center for Performance Research in NYC, Bakelit Multi-Arts Center in Budapest, Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, Riffraff Kino in Zurich, the Irish Film Institute, The Arts Council, Dublin City Council, The Irish Embassy in Switzerland, The Permanent Representation of Ireland in Strasbourg, Wicklow County Arts Office, Project Arts Centre, Dance Ireland, Culture Ireland, and Fondation Jan Michalski in Switzerland. Currently, Áine is in the planning phase for the creation of a new feature-length dance film in partnership with Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland. She was recently an artist in residence at Monte Verità, supported by The Arts Council Dance Bursary Award (2021).