An awful lot has happened to Oona Doherty since she rolled out of the boot of a car to perform Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus, a short solo about working-class masculinity. That was first performed in 2015 and the piece was the precursor to Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer, a 2019 hymn to the soul of her home town of Belfast. Both announced her as a major talent in contemporary dance.
Since then, she’s had a baby, worked a lot on the continent, been awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale, made two dance films (one of which is a horror film inspired by pregnancy) and choreographed Navy Blue, a 55-minute piece that reflects some of the tension and preoccupation she is feeling. Essentially, it’s a work of dance that questions the whole point of making dance, which makes it unsettling to watch.
