Celebrate Body Positivity At Quarter Block Party, Cork

Quarter Block Party is set to inject colour, energy, and life, into Cork city from Friday 8th February to Sunday 10th February, with over 130 of the freshest high-calibre artists in theatre, music, and dance, performing in the city's venues, bars, and outdoor spaces.

For their fifth edition, the festival are putting the body front and centre this year and celebrating the theme 'Body Positivity' through dance and theatre. Curator of the festival's Live Art programme, choreographer Ruairí O'Donovan, says: "This year we are all about bodies, bodies, bodies! Explore the festival's Live Art programme and join us for a celebration of flesh, welcoming the new, the political, and the sometimes overlooked, in a celebration of everything that makes us bold and beautiful."

The critically acclaimed TimeOut Performer of the Year SCOTTEE is guaranteed to bring the house down at The Firkin Crane with his show Fat Blokes. In his own words Fat Blokes is 'about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public', uncovering why fat men are never portrayed as sexy but always as funny, always the 'before' but never the 'after' shot. Made in collaboration with renowned choreographer Lea Anderson and several plus-sized male performers, including Scottee, all of whom are new to dance, this contemporary dance is a form of 'fat rebellion'.

Ben and Gabi Kamino, a mother and son from Canada, will show us what it means to be naked with beauty and touch in their duet m/Other. The dance is simple and challenging: together naked they touch each other and try to "not-feel". In this, they hope the work stages many values and questions: The importance of time as a substance, the value of an aged body on stage, the psychic capability to hold one another. Delicately, it is an opportunity for a mother and a son to give each other time and attention.

Bringing west coast coolness from Portland and San Francisco festival hit Allie Hankins returns with Rachael Dichter in WHEN WE, disarmingly acerbic wit and the height of radical feminist performance. Set in an austere world characterized by coded language, penetrating focus, and biting humour, Allie and Rachael skilfully utilise the expansive and charged moments between events to slowly reveal a world where tension is currency, mischief is sustenance, and surreality is a given.

Quarter Block Party partner with CREATE to welcome GENDER.RIP as the festival's Artists in Residence. Their Fully Automated Gender Luxury Oasis will provide a free pop-up chill out space for all things TRANS, gender hacked, and queer, so festival audiences can drop in for some decadent, ultra-pop respite between gigs and shows.

Are you brave enough to bare all for NAKED BOYS READING? Triskel Arts Centre will house a literary salon with Justin Hunt and curated by Cork author Caroline O'Donoghue. People who identify as a boy, or wish to for an evening, are invited to apply to your kit off and get involved in the smartest, sexiest, textual intercourse, because boys just want to have fun!

Local Heroes LORDS OF STRUT make a welcome return with a brand new show DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA. After storming Tony's Bistro at the festival two years ago, the show, taking place at Firkin Crane, celebrates a sparkling 10 years of Strut, A Mythical Memoir of Dance & Destiny.

And top off your weekend by letting your bodies get loose at BEATS AND SWEAT, a new commission of Spanish choreographer Esther Rodriguez-Barbero in collaboration with Stevie G, responding to the now derelict site of the legendary Sir Henry's nightclub on South Main Street developed with support from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and Common Ground. Taking place at Dali nightclub on Carey's Lane, this performative environment will be built from stories that remain, stories that travel in time. It is about getting there, the path that people used to follow, to Sir Henry's, to the club.

And that's not all, Quarter Block Party, presented by Makeshift Ensemble and Southern Hospitality Board, will also feature an exciting diverse range of live music and community events, including the finest musical acts like Hilary Woods, Le Boom, Junior Brother, Anna Mieke, Kneecap, and Shookrah.

Early booking is advised for this jam packed weekend! Bundle Pass (3 show pass) €25, Super Bundle Pass (6 show pass) €50, and individual show tickets are available from quarterblockparty.com

 

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