Anything to Declare
Programme Director:
Dylan Quinn
Created and Performed by:
Andy Garbi
Róis (Rose Connelly)
Róisín Loughrey
Dylan Quinn
Production Manager:
Christine Clark
“Anything to Declare” was created and presented in 2024, a creative arts project produced and delivered by Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre it took place between across a range of sites through out the village of Swanlinbar located in County Cavan and bordering County Fermanagh.
This inventive thought-provoking project involved the commissioning of four artists presenting five complimentary/unique pieces of work and details are provide below.
In 2026 we will be re-staging Anything to Declare in the city of Derry as part of Féile 2026. And as part of this exciting development Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre is seeking to commission a Derry based musician/composer/vocal artist to create a new piece of work that will be presented alongside 4 of the established pieces of work.
If you are a Derry based artist that is interested in submitting a proposal please contact us for further information or you can download some further information here
Information on original 2024 Anything to Declare.
Composer and Musician Róis (From Ached Gé), Film Maker Róisín Loughrey (Manorhamilton based but originally from Dublin), Composer and vocal artist Andy Garbi (From the Midlands of England of British Himalayan descent) and Choreographer and Dancer Dylan Quinn (Enniskillen born Artistic Director of Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre) presented a two hour event encouraging audiences to move throughout the village of Swanlinbar to observe and experience a collection of work through a range of artistic mediums.
Dylan Quinn, Programme Director explains, “Anything to Declare” brought highly acclaimed artists in their respective disciplines together in a rural location to deliver a highly memorable performance. The brief was to create space through a range of audio, visual and performing arts disciplines to generate conversation and encourage reflection of this place.
The project encouraged reflection on the border between the north and the south of Ireland. The border which has defined this island and particularly the border lands of this island since 1921. It continues to be contentious, there are those who want it, there are those who don’t, there are those who couldn’t care less and there are those who have as yet to settle of a defined position.
The commissioned artists undertook their individual creative process resuting in their own reflections on the existence and impact of the border; socially culturally, politically, emotionally, geographically, naturally.
Over three nights a unique multidisciplinary performance took place throughout Swanlinbar. Audiences were guided as they weaved their way through the village in July 2024 experiencing a series of creative performances and installations: a 21 minute dance, a 21 minute audio visual performance, a 21 minute compositional presentation, 21 moving images. 1 Cross Border neon installation.
Meet the Artists
Andy Garbi
Singer / Composer / Interdisciplinary Artist:
Selected to open the Louis Vuitton 2015 Paris fashion show, Andy Garbi’s cutting edge singing voice and music creation has gained the support of leaders in all fields of the creative arts. He has worked with Nigel Kennedy, musicians from the CBSO and as singer with cult bands Suns of Arqa, Headhunters and Celtarabia has also appeared on the same bill as The Prodigy, Roni Size, Transglobal Underground, Square Pusher, Jah Wobble and Massive Attack. He has also headlined major stages at Glastonbury, The Big Chill, The Big Green Gathering, Windows on The World, Ely Folk Festival and the Trans Musicale, Europe’s biggest world music festival. Andys work has featured on BBC R3 Late Junction, Classic fm, Chill fm and RTE Lyric fm. The launch of his debut solo album ‘The Sound Of One’ attracted global critical acclaim and led to an awarded scholarship for a music residency at the Banff Centre for The Arts Canada. Through his work, The Unsung Antiquarium he was endorsed artist with the National Trust launching his career in large scale work such as VITRESCENCE, a world-premiere installation/performance inside a 100ft high cone chimney featuring an 18-piece choir, surround sound system and brass ensemble.
Andy has been awarded a double distinction, the Masters’ Prize and the Postgraduate Prize by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Channel 4 Ideasfactory film music prize and letters of commendation from Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Netherlands Embassy for his international work. He has appeared on BBC2 The Art Show and Ireland’s premiere Arts programme Arena.
Recent commissions/collaborations with dance artist/choreographer Dylan Quinn include music for Uilleann Pipes for The Cairn and the sound installation Invisible Wound committed to vinyl for My Grandfather’s House. Andy has just received a coveted HMUK music award. He is currently working on his new solo album and plans to return to live performance in 2024.
Róisín Loughrey
Róisín is a filmmaker and artist living in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim.
Her work has been shown at home and internationally including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the V&A Museum of Childhood, London. Her film work has also been screened on RTÉ, TG4 & Arté as well as numerous international film festivals and art galleries. She recently completed a month long film residency in the Centre Culturel (CCI) in Paris.
Róis Connelly
Composer, Performer and multi-instrumentalist Róis Connolly was born in County Fermanagh. Her unique sound is an idiosyncratic combination of modernist/ contemporary music with inflections of Irish traditional music, folk and Jazz. Róis graduated from Music Composition at The Royal Conservatory The Hague. She has composed music for the Chantham Saxophone Quartet, Dublin Brass Band and The Residentie Orchestra, The Hague. She has written scores for short animations, and most recently scored the 2019 short animation CTRL + ALT + Z which achieved ‘Best Music’ at the Royal Television Society Awards while the film achieved lots of lucrative success in The Lift- Off Sessions, Galway Film Fleadh and Meet Film Festival.
A more outstanding achievement was winning the Finding A Voice Composition Competition for Emerging Women Composers. Dr. Anne-Marie O’Farrell selected the piece and performed the harp solo as part of the festival in Clonmel. Róis also recently received the Young Musicians Platform award NI in which she received a sizeable grant to record an album which will be released March 2023. After this, Róis will be heard across Irish radio performing and composing for the Ulster Orchestra, The Residentie Orchestra in 2022 and more recently The RTE Concert Orchestra and Crash Ensemble in 2023.