The Querist- PhD Arts Practice Performance

Russell Patrick Brown

Theatre 1

In the 1735 book, The Querist, Bishop Berkeley asked, “Whether we are not undone by fashions made for other people?” Three hundred years later in a solo theatrical production, Russell Patrick Brown asks The Querist’s question through the dancing body. At the intersections of economic, philosophical, spiritual and sartorial inquiry, this dance explores the embodied memory of fashion and its infectious past. His choreography sources from Irish step dance, Vogue dance and contemporary dance, and it utilises history and queer theory to research the impact of materiality upon human movement.

Based in Dublin, Russell Patrick Brown is an Arts Practice doctoral candidate at the Irish World Academy. In New York City, he studied Irish step dance with Donny Golden and Vogue with Celso Satori of the House of LaBeija. Maureen Fleming, Dr. Finola Cronin and Maria Kerin have been influences in con- temporary dance. His 2014 site-specific production, ‘Mercy of Trees’, was presented partnership with New York Public Library as part of Origin Theatre’s “First Irish” Theatre Festival. Supervised by Catherine E. Foley, Russell’s current research explores moving body’s ability to curate the past through tradition.