Helen Hall

Touch Hear Feel

Three dancers wearing bright coloured clothes seem to be emerging from a wall of White fabric. The wall is made of lots of strands of white fabric in different thicknesses. The dancers are wrapped in amongst the wall, with some parts of their bodies behind the wall, and other parts, like an arm or a hand, reaching out towards the camera through the wall. One dancer wears different shades of red clothes. The dancer in the middle wears a bright blue top with a dark bottoms. The dancer on the right wears a bright, yellow top and orange trousers.

Touch, Hear, Feel  is an immersive dance performance that reimagines how we experience art beyond the visual, inviting audiences to engage their senses in new and thoughtful ways. Choreographed by Helen and also performed by her, alongside two other dancers, the work explores the theme of touch and the embodied, felt sense.

Audience members are welcomed into an intimate environment, navigating the space by feeling their way through the set to their seats. Positioned in close proximity to the dancers, they are fully immersed—surrounded by movement, texture, and sound. The performance guides us on a journey through touch: from the practical exploration of surfaces beneath our fingertips and feet, to the deeply human experience of skin-to-skin connection, body to body.

The works features a thoughtful and creatively designed built in audio description, providing access for audience members who are blind or partially sighted. 

Touch, Hear, Feel was developed in a series of co-designed workshops with the blind and partially sighted community, in collaboration with the RNIB, Open Arts and University of Atypical. Their diverse perspectives and lived experiences form the heart of the project.

After the performances, the set was re-imagined as a multi-sensory installation with an accompanying audio narrative, featuring the voices and stories of the workshop participants.

Touch, Hear. Feel, was one of 17 commissions for Belfast 2024 (Belfast City Council). It was produced by Belfast International Arts Festival.

We see all three dancers. They wear bright clothes. One wears yellow clothes, one wears orange clothes and one wears blue clothes. These clothes stand out vividly against a white wall of fabric. The wall is made of strands of stretchy fabric, all in different widths and textures. Some strands are pulled flat and some strands are twisted like a rope. There are three panels of this stretchy white wall. Each dancer stands in front of one of the panels. Each dancer is wrapped in amongst the fabric strands. They are each exploring the textures under their fingertips and wrapping their bodies in amongst the fabric. In this shot, we also see the audience, and we can see that it is a very intimate setting. The audience are seated very close to the dancer.
We see two dancers in the midst of a duet. One wears bright yellow clothes and the other wears blue. Their hands reach into the air. On dancer is almost falling back on the other, who supports her weight on the side of her body. It is a duet about one body guiding another in dance and movement. In the foreground we see the third dancer holding a microphone. At this pint she was providing, live, creative audio description.

Cast and Creative Team

  • Created and Choreographed by Helen Hall
  • Dancers Helen Hall, Rachael Lindsay, Maeve McGreevy
  • Access Advisors Andrea Hope, Josephine McCormack, Margaret Mann
  • Dramaturg Hannah Slättne 
  • Set and Costume Design Tracey Lindsay
  • Set Builders Steve Bamford, Callum Stanley
  • Set Painter Kathryn Boyle
  • Costume Maker  Niamh Kearney
  • Lighting Design  Jonathan M. Daley
  • Voice Over Janie Doherty
  • Composer and Sound Design  Rory Friers
  • Audio Description Helen Hall in collaboration with Hanna Slättne
  • Stage Manager Caoimhe McGee
  • Lighting and Sound Operator  Aaron Ross
  • Sign Language Interpreter Steven Conlon
  • Venue Manager Becky Turnock/Smallworld
  • Promotional Photography  Neil Harrison
  • Technical Director Phil McCandlish
  • Assistant Producer Dermot McGowan
  • Executive Producer  Richard Wakely

This work was created while Helen was Artist in Residence with Belfast International Arts Festival.

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