What People Are Saying

David and Ksenia met in February 2014 during Ksenia’s guest performance at Lindy Express event in Cork, and have formed a strong creative partnership since then.

Ksenia Parkhatskaya (RUS), is a world famous Jazz & Swing dancer extraordinaire. Best known for her sensational Charleston dance style she has garnered over 150 million views online. Ksenia has toured the world since 2010, teaching and performing solo dance at various events all over Europe and as far as LA and Seoul. An award winning dancer in the solo category of the European Swing Dancing Championship, she has performed with names such as the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Paris Opera Orchestra and Christian McBride Trio.

Trained in ballroom and contemporary, currently her specialisation is solo jazz dance styles: African, Ragtime, Charleston, Swing, Bebop.

Ksenia performs a lot with live bands and orchestras such as: Christian McBride Trio (US), Paul Dunlea Big Band (Irl), Georgyi Garanyan Big Band (Rus) and 80 piece orchestra Opera de Paris (FR). In 2017 she was dancing for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet company. She creates choreographies for TV and films such as: So You Think You Can Dance’15 (Rus), So You Think You can Dance’15 (Ukr), Ukraine’s Got Talent’13 (Ukraine).

Together with dancing, Ksenia is a strong jazz singer and actress. She was a leading actress in St -Petersburg musical theatre “Uventa” from 2005 - 2009.

In 2015 herself and David Duffy started “Swing’n’Joy” jazz band, where I Ksenia is a lead singer. As well they created “Jazzicality” course teaching musicianship and improvisation for dancers. Currently Ksenia runs two projects: her online dance course “Ksenia’s Secrets of Charleston 20’s” and one woman show “Radio Hermitage”

David has worked as a composer and bassist since 2003. His passion for music has led to the formation of a highly diverse career, spanning from avant garde immersive audio visual shows to performances with many of Cork’s leading singer songwriters and musicians. His love of Jazz and blues brought him to Ksenia and the start of their life long collaboration both in Life and the Arts.

A student of music from an early age David graduated from UCC with a BA Hons in music (2006), Bmus (2007) and an MA in composition (2009).

He was one of three selected for the University of California E.A.P Scholarship and has previously received the Ted and Mary O’ Reagan Bursary for emerging artists, along with Cork city council bursaries and Arts Council of Ireland Bursaries for composition. He was recently chosen an one of four for the Gare St Lazare mentorship programme.

His most recent compositions include a commission from Cork Film festival to compose “Flux” with Eat My Noise and Oiche Nollaig na mban for Oonagh Kearney that was just selected as best film at the Budapest Film Festival.

As a jazz player he is one of the leading exponents of Jazz in Cork City with residencies at the Crane Lane, Bodega and Blue Note at the Roundy, while also performing internationally at the Hat Jazz Bar Berlin, Dom 7 in St Petersburg and swing dance festivals throughout Europe, La Jam, Swingcrash, and Happy Stomp to name a few. As a pit player he features regularly for Waterford, Fermoy and Kilarney ,musical societies and Cork Academy of Dance and Acting’s Christmas Panto in the Everyman palace theatre every year. He is a former member of the Cork Symphony Orchestra, the CSM Orchestra and the WIT Orchestra.

Johnny Lloyd is a versatile artist, he is a director, choreographer, cinematographer, dramaturge and lighting designer. For 15 years Johnny Lloyd has been traveling the world as a Lindy Hop and Charleston teacher. Since his move to Europe he has been working with the biggest names in the contemporary dance world today. Most significantly Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and his company “EastMen” with whom Johnny currently tours the world. From 2003 on Johnny has been creating dance productions for various Stadttheater, Opera houses and Parkteater in Holland and Germany.

Johnny has a degree in jazz music (trumpet) and poetry. Ksenia met Johnny 7 years ago in Saint Petersburg when she was assisting him in teaching vernacular dance workshop. In 2016 Johnny invited Ksenia to his production “Other Tales from The Underground” - dance piece, that intertwines street dance and vernacular dance languages. The piece premiered in ParkTeater September 2st in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

In 2003 he created his first full length solo “Accidental Artist”, which led to receiving support from the German Culture Office. In Germany he created over 10 feature dance productions, all of them critically acclaimed. In 2011 he was invited to Fontys Dansacademie as a guest lecturer to help co-create a profile for curriculum for the Contemporary Urban department. In 2012-2013 he toured with the co-creation “Unpunished”, made together with Guilherme Miotto and Bodies Anonymous.

In 2013 he dance for Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, in “M¡longa”, “Fractus” and “Genesis”, and in 2014 worked as assistant choreographer for Sidi Larbi in the current Cirque du Soleil creation “Kurios”.

In 2014 Johnny created the contemporary hip hop piece ‘Traces’, in collaboration with Andre Grekhov and Parktheater.

David and Tim have worked alongside each other on various productions in the Firkin Crane, Opera house and Everyman Theatre. He is artistically a mind reader who intuitively knows what the director wants, and works his magic to bring a show to life.

Tim Feehily has worked as a lighting designer for over 25 years in all aspects of theatre including stage management, sound, AV, rigging both in Ireland and internationally. His main areas of interest are dance and musical theatre.

Upcoming projects include:

“Fred and Alice” Everyman Palace
“Red Riding Hood” Everyman Palace
“Giselle” Cork Opera House

Recent credits in dance include:

‘Fulcrum” Dublin Dance Festival 2016 and Becket Festival Paris
“On Triumph and Trauma” (Luke Murphy Attic Productions) Ireland and USA tour
“Ultima Thule” (Catherine Young Dance) Project Dublin
“Tost” “5 th Province” “Fulcrum” (Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre)
“Out of the Black” Cork Youth Ballet Company
“Third Chair” (Legitimate Bodies Dance)
“A Shadow that Leans” (Mermaid Arts Centre Commission)
“Swan Lake:” “Ballet Spectacular” “Nutcracker” (Cork City Ballet) Opera House, Cork

DLionel Menard graduated from the “École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris” directed by Marcel Marceau. He was an actor in Compagnie Marcel Marceau and CIE Philippe Genty. Since the beginning of his education he was interested in writing scripts and directing. Lionel Menard cooperates with Bodecker & Neander Compagnie as a dramatist and director of most of their shows. ("Silence", "Monsieur Satie", "Out of the blue", "Deja Vu", "Opus 4", "Follow Light")

TiWith Warsaw Mime Center Company he created performances "Agua De Lagrimas" (2013), "Gogol" (2014), "Marcel" (2015)

Ksenia met Lionel Menard, a director of a plastic theatre, in Berlin, July 2015 and proposed to work together. She has created a draft of acts and storyline to put together a show. Ksenia and Lionel immediately found an artistic connection. They worked together for 3 days in a dance studio space just before the festival Un Violon Sur Le Sable where the show had to be presented. As a result they created a sequence of acts, a storyline for the piece. At that time Ksenia and David called the piece JazzVille.

Cormac McCarthy is a composer, arranger and pianist born in Cork, Ireland. He began studying piano aged four, and soon after discovered the joy of composition. He has gone on to perform and compose in a wide range of musical genres; from classical to jazz to Irish traditional music.

In 2010 Cormac received the prestigious Bill Whelan International Music Bursary from Bill Whelan, an award earmarked for young Irish composers studying abroad. He spent a number of years living in Chicago, where he completed a Masters in Jazz Studies at DePaul University. His compositions and arrangements have been recorded by such jazz icons as Phil Woods and Jeff Hamilton. As a pianist, he has performed extensively at concert venues, clubs and festivals throughout Europe and the US, recording and performing with artists across numerous genres, including Peter Washington, Billy Drummond, Liz Carroll, Tony Miceli, Padraig Rynne, Stan Sulzmann.

Cormac's most recent project, Cottage Evolution centres around music he has written for a 12-piece ensemble, and features musicians from an interesting and diverse blend of musical backgrounds. The project's debut album has recently been released on the LYTE Records label to widespread acclaim. Cormac is also a member of the forward-thinking Irish traditional group NOTIFY, whose new album InConcept is due for release on Ropeadope Records in March 2016.

Davie is a graduate of both UCC (1st class honours degree in Music) and of Cork School of Music (1st class honours Masters in Performance). He has extensive experience both nationally and internationally as a touring and recording musician in a range of diverse genres including, pop, jazz, folk, rock, world and traditional music. In 2015 he received an Individual Artist Bursary Award from Cork City Arts Council to undertake four weeks of intensive masterclasses in New York with renowned drummers/educators Kendrick Scott, Billy Drummond, Clarence Penn and Nate Smith.

Acts that he works with on a regular basis include Jack O’ Rourke, Marlene Enright, The Niall McCabe Band, The Hard Ground, Notify, Cormac McCarthy's Cottage Evolution, Súp, The Paul Dunlea Group, John Blek, Anna Mitchell and Karen Underwood.

He has wide-ranging expertise as a recording artist and has worked with many renowned studio producers, including Grammy award winning Jay Joyce (Tragedy/Tragedy Studios, Nashville) & Ciaran Byrne (Cauldron Studios, Dublin), Christian Best (Monique Studios, Cork) and John Fitzgerald (Lettercullum Studios, West Cork). He is also Senior Drum Tutor at the CIT Academy of Popular and works regularly with Music Generation. David endorses Sakae Drums, Protection Racket Cases and Big Fat Snare Drum.

Ken Marshall has been a fixture on the Cork jazz scene for many years leading his own quartet and jazz-fusion band and was an integral member of the Cork School of Music Jazz Big Band. In recent years he has featured alongside legendary jazz musicians Bobby Watson and Jon Faddis in concert. Ken has been involved in countless productions at the Cork Opera House and Everyman Palace Theatre as a session player. As a band conductor Ken lead the Mayfield Brass Band to two regional Band titles and their first National Band Title in 2001. As an orchestral instrumentalist he has performed with the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Cork Youth Orchestra, UCC Orchestra, Irish Operatic & Repertoire Society and more. As a wind band instrumentalist he has played with the Irish Youth wind Ensemble, Trinity College of Music Contemporary Wind Orchestra, Cork School of Music Concert Band & Wind Ensemble, etc. He has been a member of the critically acclaimed UK Saxophone Quartet ‘Intoto’ and ‘Trinity Saxes’ while based in London.

Awards include:
The Pro Musica Trophy for outstanding wind student at the Cork School of Music, 2002 Beverley Creed scholarship for further study at Trinity College, London, 2002 Most promising conductor prize at South of Ireland band Championships, 2000

Background:
Born in Cork, Ireland, Ken holds an Honours Degree in music from the Cork School of Music, and received a scholarship for further study at Trinity College of Music, London in 2002. Ken currently lectures in saxophone and clarinet at the Cork School of Music and also for the Cork County School of Music. Throughout his career, Ken has been fortunate to study with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists in both jazz and classical fields. These include Kenneth Edge (NSOI & Riverdance), Prof. Gerard McChrystal (Trinity College London), Tim Garland (Internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist/composer), Bob Berg (former Miles Davis side-man and soloist), Frank Dupenbecker (Dusseldorf Symphony) Dr. Gordon Foote (McGill University Canada), Tim Price (top US jazz educationalist), Scott Stromann (Guildhall School of Music London) and many more.