MINT: A folk opera on money (mint: lat. for money; minted: brit. engl. for rich) is created at the intersection of theatre, lived history, and choreography. Personal stories are transformed into autofictions and given a performative framework. Based on Sheena McGrandles’ own personal story of going from a working-class family in Ireland to the contemporary independent dance scene in Berlin, McGrandles explores the relationship between money, social class and work. In her immediate environment, the independent dance scene in Berlin, the issue of precarity is very present, and the idea of the ‘poor artist’ continues to be alive in its metaphorical and romanticized form. However, questions of actual income, class, and individual background remain obscured by veils of shame and guilt.
More informationOriginally from Northern Ireland, Berlin-based Sheena McGrandles grew up in a working-class family where contemporary dance was almost non-existent and access to classes or training was extremely limited. Sheena learned ballet from a book and dance from television and managed to secure a place at the Laban Centre (London). This made her the first in her family to complete a university degree. She then completed the MA SODA program at the HZT/UdK Berlin, funded with an excellence scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. Shortly after, Sheena was selected for the 8-month residency at K3, Kampnagel. From 2013-2018, in addition to her increasingly intense work as a freelance dancer and choreographer, she was a lecturer at HZT Berlin in the BA and MA SODA programme.
In recent years, Sheena’s work has gained increasing visibility and recognition. She has been invited to Tanzplatform Deutschland twice, with FIGURED in 2020 and with FLUSH in 2022. In the Tanz 2021 yearbook, she was mentioned in the critics’ poll as ‘most interesting choreographer’ for the piece FLUSH.