Project Affectionate is a North Clare–based eco-somatic dance collective founded in October 2023 by Maria Kerin in collaboration with Sofia Ananda and Herminia Ayala. The collective brings together professional dance artists, amateur movers, and members of diverse cultural communities to explore movement as a form of environmental care and social connection.
At the heart of the group’s work is the merging of professional dance practice with community-led ecological awareness and participatory action.
Project Affectionate began as a small eco-somatic movement group meeting at Teach Ceoil, Ennistymon and has since grown into a vibrant collective of more than thirteen members.
The group explores the relationship between:
body and landscape
spatial awareness and the felt senses
movement and environmental responsibility
Through shared practice, the collective creates spaces for listening, inclusion, and collective expression across cultures and experience levels.
Core Practice: Re-Wilding Bodies
Central to the collective’s work is Re-Wilding Bodies, a weekly eco-somatic movement practice facilitated by Maria Kerin. This practice is:
Mindful and restorative, supporting wellbeing through gentle movement
Accessible to all abilities, with a particular resonance for artists and environmental activists experiencing fatigue or burnout
Rooted in multi-sensory awareness, connecting movement with nature and place
Methodological influences include:
Antoinette Spillane’s Seasonal Score
Mary Nunan’s Release Technique
Body-Mind Centering
Joan Davis’ Origins
These influences are adapted into a unique collective methodology shaped by ongoing artistic research and lived experience.
A central strand of Project Affectionate’s work is Embodied Activism — responding to ecological concerns through movement, ritual, and collective presence.
Current areas of focus include:
local drinking water quality
declining river health
the impacts of climate change and environmental neglect
The collective was selected to participate in Common Ground, a programme supporting rural communities to develop biodiversity and climate-action meitheals (community work gatherings). Through this work, movement becomes both an artistic practice and a form of environmental engagement.
Project Affectionate actively shares its work through participatory performances and public events, including:
Samhain Climate Action Water Meitheal (2024)
Common Knowledge Centre, Lisdoonvarna — movement workshop and participatory performance
Culture Night (2024)
P(A)rty Here and Now, Peace Park, Ennis
Here and Now Live Art Festival (2024)
Performance at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon
These events invite audiences to experience movement as a shared act of reflection, care, and connection to place.
Weekly rehearsals and workshops take place at Mrua Studio (Luisne) in Monreal North, Ennistymon. The studio provides a welcoming space for ongoing practice, research, and community gathering.
A community collective supporting and developing eco-somatic practice across creative disciplines, rooted in North Clare. This stems directly out of Project Affectionate and we are actively setting this up and seeking contact with like-minded creatives.