New Omagh exhibition examines life along the border

A NEW exhibition opening this Thursday at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh is set to shine a spotlight on the rich and varied dance culture of Ireland’s rural border regions.

Titled ‘Moving Through and Around,’ the exhibition opens at 7pm on July 3, and is the latest offering in a ground-breaking project that blends contemporary art, research, and dance. The concept brings together the creative visions of artists Helena Hamilton, Aoife McGrath, Sorca McGrath, and Simon Mills, working in collaboration with eight dancers from counties Cavan, Monaghan, Tyrone and Fermanagh.

Visitors will experience dance in a whole new way – through sculpture, sound, video, photography, drawings, and movement capture – all inspired by the natural flow of water through the region’s unique geological landscapes. The result is an immersive, multi-sensory experience that explores how dance connects people, cultures, and places across and beyond the border.

Among the featured dancers are Ruth Clarke, Marion Crowe, Jamie Fagan, Jessie Keenan, Tina McGurren, Rebeca Sanchez, Aysha Treanor, and Dylan Quinn, who represent a broad range of dance styles. From Sean-Nós, Flamenco, and set dancing, to hip-hop, Scottish country, jiving, and line dancing, the exhibition celebrates a diversity that is often overlooked in traditional mappings of dance across the island.

The exhibition is part of Dance Connects in Rural Border Regions, a cross-border cultural initiative funded through Creative Ireland’s Creative Communities on a Shared Island scheme (2023–2027). The project pairs local councils with practitioners and researchers to build a sustainable, community-driven exchange of dance and culture, based on findings from a 2023 pilot project titled Sites of Significance.

Using an innovative mix of practice-as-research and social science, Dance Connects aims to influence cultural policy while supporting the lived dance ecology of Ireland’s rural borderlands.

‘Moving Through and Around’ runs until Saturday July 28 and can be viewed during normal gallery hours, Monday to Saturday, 9:30am to 5:00pm. Admission is free.

As the title suggests, this exhibition invites everyone to move – not just physically, but emotionally and collectively – through and around boundaries.