The choreographer and director Michael Keegan-Dolan and the concertina virtuoso Cormac Begley are two of the 8756 inhabitants of Kerry Gaeltacht, one of the seven counties where the Irish culture and language remain vibrant. In 2019, the two met in the studios of Keegan Dolan’s company, Taec Damsa – literally “the place where dance happens” – with the idea of doing something together.
Out of this came MÁM, a project steeped in the surrounding landscape and reality. Begley attended the entire process of creation, shaping his score around the movements of the dancers, who in turn adapted their bodies to the sound of the concertina. The result is a collective work, guided by a vision.