Ghaliah Conroy
SUNKEN WORKS / DON'T BITE

Ghaliah Conroy (1996, Ireland) graduated from the dance and choreography course at Fontys in Tilburg. Originally, she has a background in theatre as an actress and singer and therefore enjoys working interdisciplinary. She has a fascination for images and likes to be inspired by photographers, videographers and visual artists. As a maker, she seeks her own theatrical language where body and image together tell the story.

Under the title Sunken Works Ghaliah Conroy is working on a series of works around the theme of the Human Zoo, the 'exotic' exhibitions that took place in Europe well into the 20th century, where people of colour were displayed behind a fence. What effect does this history have on black women today?

Sunken Works / Don't BITE is a cinematic exploration about looking and being looked at. How do you relate to a gaze that reduces you to a stereotype? And how do you reclaim your autonomy? Ghaliah is collaborating with audiovisual artist CJ Roxas for this research. Ghaliah made this as part of the Virtuale Residencies of Dutch Dance Days 2024.

Alongside this cinematic exploration of the theme, Ghaliah is also working on a performance, Sunken Works / who makes the rules, which premieres on 5 February at De Nieuwe Vorst, Tilburg,

About Virtual Residencies
During Nederlandse Dansdagen 2024, the online stage featured three new Virtual Residencies. Young talented makers will present their (research) projects in these Residencies. To select the makers, Nederlandse Dansdagen collaborates with three organisations that collectively span a large part of talent development in dance, namely Moving Futures, Korzo and DansBrabant. Participant from DansBrabant in 2024 was Ghaliah Conroy.