Prestigious Olivier nomination for Colin

KILLALOE resident Colin Dunne has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, the dancer was recently named among three contenders in the Outstanding Achievement in Dance category for his solo show Out of Time.
The Laurence Olivier Awards are considered the most prestigious awards in London theatre and form the highlight of the theatrical year. Among the nominees in the various categories include top West End theatre productions such as Wicked, The Phantom of The Opera, We Will Rock You, War Horse and Billy Elliot The Musical. A number of well-known actors who are also among the nominees include performances by Gillian Anderson, Rachel Weisz, James Earl Jones, Jude Law, Keira Knightley, Rowan Atkinson and Spice Girl Melanie Chisolm.
For Colin, this is the second prestigious UK award nomination that he has received having recently been nominated for a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award. His solo show, Out of Time was presented at bite09 by the Barbican Centre and was supported by Culture Ireland and Project Arts Centre. It is directed by Newry native, Sinéad Rushe, and was originally commissioned by Glór Irish Music Centre having premiered in Ennis in 2008. 
Internationally acclaimed in the world of Irish step dance, having won his first world title at the age of nine, Colin Dunne has been forging a new creative path in recent years and this, his first solo show is a very contemporary perspective on the art form. He also held the principal dancer role with Riverdance from 1995 to 1998.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Colin said, “The Olivier awards are the main stage awards in London and for the West End so it’s pretty big thing. I was nominated for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award but something like the Olivier’s was not on the radar at all for me so it was genuinely shocking to get the nomination. Growing up in the UK, I knew what the awards were, they are essentially the Oscars of theatre and so it is a big honour. It also feels a million miles away from how the show came about.
It was a small intimate solo show with five people on the creative team and in a way, it was not ambitious, I just wanted to get the show right. Something like this nomination seems a long way away from where I am,” he said.
Colin, who is living in Killaloe since 2001, explained that he came up with the initiating question for the show and that his director Sinéad Rushe along with the team developed the show into what it is now. 
He outlined how the show came about, “I was 40 and dancing since the age of three and I had questions of traditional dance, the show is not explicitly about that, but it is informed by it. The overall sense of the show is about my mixed relationship with traditional dance, the bits I love the bits I don’t.” He acknowledges that while the show is quite personal, it has been developed and moulded by Sinéad Rushe. 
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in London on March 21.