BIOGRAPHY EN 151 words / 896 chrs
Deirdre C Molloy uses dance, ethnography and digital design to research Black identity. Dancing Blues, Dancehall and West African codes socially, in an Afro-diasporic body, motivates her doctoral thesis and artistic identity, 'UnityAtlantic'. In 2022-26, Molloy created the Unity Atlantic Rhythm Map – an interactive video archive of social dance – and created 25 short films on rhythm. A dazzling constellation of Africana rhythms and ‘rhythm codes’ emerges – the embodied knowledge needed to access belonging. Rhythm unites music, dance, memory, innovation and values of Ubuntu in Black Atlantic social life. Audio, videos and text meet online in the Unity Map – an intangible heritage archive prototype, open to collective knowledge and collaborations! Launched in 2024 at l’Atelier gallery in Nantes, the Unity Map is a dynamic digital resource that compliments the narrative film Drum Calls | Body Recalls (19 min) – co-produced with MANIFEST and Code Your Future UK. Follow the research: https://unityatlantic.org/ and https://linktr.ee/molloydc
BIOGRAPHY EN: 1655/5000
Under the artistic name UnityAtlantic, Deirdre Molloy creates film, music and performance collaborations. Unity is a container for collaborations that flow from PhD research reflecting on Molloy's Bajan-Irish American heritage. Thanks to EU funding, Martiniquan dancer Aurélie Capelle-Sigère joined Unity for the Black Atlantic Space-Time production through 2023-24. Co-producers included Code Your Future (UK) and Gerador (Portugal) for the MANIFEST exhibition at L'Atelier in Nantes, France from in September-October 2024. Molloy uses social dance ethnography and digital design to research Black Atlantic identity. This audiovisual research took Molloy to Ivory Coast in 2025. Visiting the USA with an Erasmus+ grant in 2024, Molloy danced with Blues, DC Hand Dance, DC Bop, and street dance communities. She also presented research at the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance at Duke University, at SLIPPAGE dance lab of Northwestern University and at Droppin’ Science hip hop conference in Cork. In 2022, Molloy affiliated with CIPHER ERC and won the Danijela Memorial Award for interdisciplinary innovation in Film, Music and Theatre. Molloy's practice-as-research follows degrees in Psychology (2.1 TCD), Multimedia (1.1 DCU) and Ethnochoreology (1.3 UL). Molloy is a PhD candidate at UCC in cotutelle with the University of Toulouse, France. Her research websites are designed to platform Black dance and culture-bearer voices.
UNITY ATLANTIC RHYTHM MAP : interactive kinetic heritage journey : co-produced with Gerador / co-funded by Creative Europe: MANIFEST. https://unityatlantic.org/
DECODENOIR : Interviews, movies, dance ethnography. https://www.decodenoir.org
BIOGRAPHIE FR 160/892
La recherche-création UnityAtlantic rend visible la constellation des danses sociales et rituels noirs – des danses de couple de l'époque du blues au dancehall old school, en passant par les danses d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Deirdre C. Molloy est la danseuse et designer à l'origine de la ressource interactive intitulée « Unity Atlantic Rhythm Map ». De 2022-2026, Molloy a réalisé environ 25 courts-métrages sur le rythme en tant qu’unité de connaissance unissant la musique, la danse, la memoire, l’innovation et des valeurs tels que l’Ubuntu. Rassemblant des vidéos et des textes a l’honneur du patrimoine culturel immatériel noir fragmenté par l’esclavage et le colonialisme, ce prototype reste ouvert aux savoirs collectifs et aux collaborations ! Lancée en 2024 à la galerie l’Atelier à Nantes (France), le « Unity Map » est une ressource numérique dynamique qui complète le film narratif Drum Calls | Body Recalls (19 min), coproduit avec MANIFEST et Code Your Future UK. Suivez la recherche: https://unityatlantic.org/ et https://linktr.ee/molloydc
DETAILS FR: 80 w / 569 c
Dee Molloy, doctorante à l'Université de Toulouse en cotutelle avec University College Cork, est artiste-chercheuse en danses de l’Afrique et de sa diaspora Atlantique. La direction de thèse est assuré par Prof. Hourya Bentouhami (UT2J), Prof. J. Griffith Rollefson (UCC) et Prof. Thomas F. DeFrantz (Northwestern University, USA). La soutenance est prévue en Irlande 2026.09.21. Bourses: EU MANIFEST, ERASMUS+, UCC: Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Memorial Award, UT2J: Aide soutenance artistique; aide de terrain ALLP@, mobilité et matériel ERRAPHIS, mobilité Ambassade de France Irlande.
Molloy, D. C. (2025). Unity Atlantic Rhythm Map: Visite Guidée FR 3:07 (Huma-Num). https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.CAC917F9
Molloy, D. C. (2025). Video Tour : Unity Atlantic Rhythm Map. (Huma-Num). https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.515DH8N3
Selected Screenings: 2027 #DouglassWeek. 2027.02 Cuba Hoy / MJC Ponts Jumeaux. 2026.10 Berlin Blues & Fusion 2026.10 Festival Danses et Continents Noirs Toulouse.
Last update: 2026.07.13
Author photo above by Bárbara Monteiro /Gerador
Author photo attached : DKW Portia Cruz, UCC
