New to the Parish: Magdalena Hylak came to Ireland 20 years ago from Poland
Magdalena Hylak outside Nuns Island Theatre in Galway city. 'As an artist, I’m absolutely Irish, because it’s here that I started to develop and make work as a dancer,' she says. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughness
“I took up a job in a local pub and I found myself in a place where I was really welcomed and comfortable. I started to really live on my own and discover myself through being away from my own culture and the security of family and friends,” she says.‘We didn’t really propose. We just said that if we feel the same way in one year, let’s get married.
“I first started doing gymnastics, but then I quickly discovered different ways of moving and found myself in the dance theatre in my city. It was contemporary dance,” she says.“We can tell stories and connect through movement, which has always really interested me. The fact that I can connect and open a space through the motion of the body is what I love. What I really like is that I do not need words. Words are not needed for this to happen,” she explains.
“I was young, and Clifden was buzzing at that time prior to the recession. The streets and the pubs always had a massive party. There were a lot of young people still here, but now they’ve moved to the cities. It was a great time of self discovery, of making friends and being in love,” she recalls.“She’s just turned 18 years old, which is quite scary,” she says with a smile.
“Mentally, because the light is gone so early and so limited. But also for work, because things stop happening. Things have to close – restaurants, pubs, hotels, and it can become quite lonely during the winter,” Hylak says. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was tough to be away from touring and working, but in retrospect, it was “the start of me developing my own work”, Hylak says.
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