A cinematic dance-prayer from a major voice in contemporary dance. Oona Doherty’s Hard to be Soft is a white-hot manifestation of Belfast defiance and rage.

Over four episodes, her city’s seemingly intractable undercurrent of conflict manifests through meditative stillness and shocking power.

Influenced by club culture and the European avant-garde, Doherty's dancers explode institutional discipline with intuitive swagger. Set in a gleaming cage—with driving music by DJ David Holmes (Killing Eve, Ocean’s Eleven, Hunger)—she takes us behind the mask of machismo, into the inner-lives of Belfast’s hard men and strong women. Street life is spiked with religious ritual. An Adidas-clad army of teenage girls throw down warrior hip-hop. A father and son collide inside a ‘Meat Kaleidoscope’. A man is held, like a helium balloon, in white-hot limbo. Vulnerable yet cock-sure solos from Doherty bend within the brawling.

It’s a raw and compelling work that celebrates what Belfast has to offer, while invoking what’s missing.

Hard to be Soft is part of the inaugural Australian Dance Biennale, curated and hosted by RISING.

This project is supported by Culture Ireland and Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

Australian Dance Biennale is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts funding and advisory body.

Image by Luca Truffarelli