Swimming With My Mother

A mother and son navigate the ebb and flow of their shared history in this intimate and heart-warming dance duet.

At two years of age, Ireland’s youngest swimming hope takes a lesson from his mother, a swimming coach. Life passes in laps, things change and the boy teaches his mother to dance. As their own stories intertwine and swell like a rising tide, the bonds of kinship and familial love are revealed to the sultry tones of Nat King Cole.

Swimming With My Mother is performed by acclaimed Irish choreographer David Bolger and his 77-year-old mother Madge. Told with affectionate humour and a genuine sense of wonder, it is a gentle and joyful celebration of the things we pass on and the things we inherit.

This show was presented in Dublin, Paris and Edinburgh and was winner of Best Production Award at the Limerick Unfringed Festival 2011. 

David Bolger’s short dance film Deep End Dance will be screened at the end of each performance.
A fully dressed man is joined by his mother in the turquoise dappled waters of a swimming pool as the two perform a playful duet of underwater somersaults and pirouettes. Deep End Dance was commissioned for the Arts Council/RTE Dance on the Box scheme in 2010 and has since won multiple awards including BEST SHORT FILM at the Boston Irish Festival, The Celtic Media Festival and the FastNet Film Festival, in 2011.

Swimming with My Mother is funded by the Arts Council Ireland and Dublin City Council. International touring is supported by Culture Ireland.