In the beginning was the word.

But was that really the beginning?

In the true beginning there were us, our flesh and blood and of course our feelings, and

the earth and its stones, coalesced in the bones. Might we create something new? A

reinvigorated language, freshness bringing us back into real life?

With this shared hunch and wild hope, we gathered in an old stone church in Limerick.

Carved faces looked down at us from high up, most serious, some smiling. Down below,

all our faces were smiling.

Many of us carried a stone with us. A stone, a bone of the earth. And stories and

memories of precious landscapes of our hearts, told with our bodies. Some of us were

dancers; some were Deaf people, whose words are always, always our flesh and bones;

all of us were happy to move as we felt. We brought some words that we sensed might fit.

And from these, we made a new landscape in which to come together again. One that we

now want to grow some more.

Some possible titles for this work: Bonewords — Focail na gcnámh (in Irish), Stonewords,

What the Stones Told Us, Stories from Our Bones…

We have no doubt more possibilities will come. We simply need to feed them. And

ourselves, so that we can keep the conversation going and bring it further.

These are the facts:

A new, fertile feeling piece grown from stones, bones, words and bodies, in the rich soil of

Limerick.

An exploration of language and landscape.

Supported by Surface Area Dance Theatre, Dance Limerick, Sophie Hutchinson, Louise

Stern, and beautiful collaborators Sara Chezari, Faye Alvi, Iona Padden-Duncan, Rachel

Jean Birch, Katy Hewison, Erin McNamara, Alexandra McDonald and many more.

- Louise Stern (Deaf Visual Artist and Writer)

More coming soon!

Nothing Exists Until It Moves (2025)