Julie Lockett

 Julie Lockett is an independent dance artist who lives and works in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Co. Tipperary – a lived response to the climate crisis.  

Julie creates work over an extended period of several months in order to build a multitude of themes and meanings in her work for herself and her audience.  Her practice comprises dance and writing.  She provides a dramaturgical frame for her audience through which to view her work. 

When the weather is dry and not too cold, Julie works with the ecovillage land, a 67 acre site which comprises: housing, a district heating system, a community supported agriculture farm, outdoor amphitheatre, enterprise centre, woodland, wood-fired bakery, orchards and allotments. She works barefoot; building tolerance to different temperatures, working in a space bounded by trees, with a soundscape of biodiversity along with her neighbours and farmers working and moving about the land, with the constantly shifting change in conditions which range from subtle changes of light, to birds flying overhead and downpours.

When the weather is too wet and cold, she works in a studio and experiments with synthesising material she has created with the land and translating it into a theatrical experience which can be performed in a sheltered setting, ie a studio, theatre, hall.

Julie’s work is influenced by her adaptation/performance of the choreographies of eminent US choreographer Deborah Hay. She was gifted solo ‘The Other Side of O’, commissioned solos ‘The Ridge’ and ‘I’ll Crane for You’ and a group work ‘A Lost Opera’. Between 2004 and 2011, she co-founded and directed Genesis Project & Collective with Ella Clarke, a practice-based project for radicalisation in the art form of dance, mentored by Hay.

She has performed, collaborated, choreographed, presented work, directed projects and taught nationally and internationally over the last 22 years in a professional and community context.  Recent works include: ‘Her-acre’ directed by Jason Byrne supported by the Arts Council, with additional support from Dance Ireland and two collaborations with Instant Dissidence: One Last Dance – An Chéad Damhsa  a perambulating dance across the UK and Ireland and …As If Trying Not To Own The Earth, performed as a film and live streamed as part of Dublin Dance Festival 2021.

Julie trained at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, Cork, has a BA (Hons) in Dance Performance from Middlesex University, UK, a BA in Modern Languages & International Relations from John Moore University and has completed a Permaculture Design Course.

Julie is also an ecovillage educator and co-owner of Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School, a multi-award winning wood-fired bakery, internationally renowned for its fermentation, teaching and fossil-free baking www.riotrye.ie

Image Her-Acre Julie Lockett photo by Benedict Hutchinson