Sunken Works / Don’t BITE

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 creators, 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.

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 for public viewing. What effect does this history have on black women today? With 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 Conroy graduated from the dance and choreography course at Fontys in Tilburg. Originally, she has a background in theatre as an actress and singer. Since graduating, she has been looking for how to bring these different loves together meaningfully. In the past two years, she danced, among others, in HAMMAM an immersive performance by the Irish company ANU Productions, performed in the performance The Pull of the Stars at The Gate Theatre Dublin and was part of Marian Quinn's film TWIG. At Makershuis Tilburg and in residence at DansBrabant, she worked out her plans for Sunken Works.

Ghaliah 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.

Sunken Works / Don't BITE premiered during the Virtual Residencies at Nederlandse Dansdagen.