MEET THE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE: Deirdre Molloy from Unity
Deirdre Molloy
A shared interest in jazz, blues, hip hop, Caribbean and African dance brings Deirdre Molloy and Aurelie Capelle-Sigère together in a new artistic collaboration called Unity.
Deirdre has always danced socially – in clubs from New York, to Sydney Australia, mainly to techno, house, hip hop and dancehall. She fell in love with vintage dance in 2012 and began teaching under her own brand, Dance your Blues Away in 2019. Later that year, she moved to France to dance full-time. Through the Toulouse dance community, Deirdre connected with Antillian jazz choreographer Aurelie.
In 2022 Deirdre Molloy was awarded a scholarship for an interdisciplinary humanities research proposal from the school of Film, Theatre and Music, University College Cork. This PhD scholarship follows Deirdre’s First Class Honours Masters in Ethnochoreology (2022) from University of Limerick. Deirdre’s Masters thesis and ongoing research are inspired by her life experience and dance journey titled: “From Blues Dance to African Diaspora Identity”.
From 2011 to 2019 Deirdre was Multimedia Communications Officer for national science network Microscopy Australia, headquartered at the University of Sydney. Her wide-ranging experience of art and design across a range of media plays into dance in her exhibition concept website.
Within the MANIFEST Artistic Journey, Deirde will work together with Aurelie Capelle-Sigère as a member of the collective Unity.
Africanist rhythms unify present, past and future in my body. I visualise this heritage as a Black Atlantic space-time continuum in honour of lost ancestors, transcending the geographic dispersion of my people. My aim is to Afro-futurise Black Atlantic rhythm codes into a digital archive, for transnational black pride, unity and generations to come. The imperative to decolonize, in collaboration with community – this is the project of DecodeNoir and Unity.
