Michael Keegan-Dolan is no stranger to re-casting choreographic classics as contemporary Irish dance theatre: his company Fabulous Beast had international hits with productions of Giselle (2003) and Rite of Spring (2009). In 2016 he took on one of ballet's most enduring stories, Swan Lake, transposing the story to the contemporary midlands of Ireland, and swapping out Tchaikovsky's score for folk music (performed live by Dublin-based band Slow Moving Clouds).
Keegan-Dolan's Loch na hEala puts contemporary social issues alongside ancient mythology, to tell a story of love between a suicidal young man and a young woman cursed by the Catholic priest who abused her.