Oona Doherty, one of Europe’s major choreographic talents, returns to Dublin Dance Festival and the Abbey stage with her most ambitious work to date. Featuring music from Sergeï Rachmaninoff and Jamie xx, this compelling new work invites us to consider where we have been and where we are heading, as it appeals for urgent societal change.

Navy Blue is a dark, unsettling choreography created by Doherty in collaboration with a cast of twelve exceptional dancers. While their movements are graceful and simultaneous, each dancer maintains their own distinct individuality – the unison of classical ballet infused with a sense of uneasiness and existential dread.

Set to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, a work that reflects his own depression and its overcoming, Navy Blue explores crisis, redemption, and re-birth. Referencing the power structures that contain us, it is a brutal and beautiful search for meaning and purpose. A big piece that asks big questions. An attempt for freedom and for a new future.

Navy Blue is a creation of Oona Doherty, produced by OD Works, coproduced by Kampnagel International Summer Festival (DE), Sadler’s Wells (UK), Théâtre National de Chaillot (FR), La Biennale di Venezia (IT), Maison de la Danse (FR), The Shed (USA), Belfast International Arts Festival (UK) and Big Pulse Dance Alliance (coproduced by Dance Umbrella (UK), Dublin Dance Festival (IR), Torinodanza Festival (IT) and Julidans (NL) ) and presented by Tanz im August/HAU Hebbel am Ufer (DE), Zodiak – Side Step Festival (FI), ONE Dance Week (BG), International Dance Festival TANEC PRAHA (CZ), New BalticDance (LT), CODA Oslo International Dance Festival (NW), funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, Supported by Kulturstiftug des Bundes and the support of the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France – Ministère de la culture.