Dancer from the Dance Festival of Irish Choreography 2021

Zoë is a professional dance artist and choreographer from Dublin. She trained at the English National Ballet School from 2006-2009 and subsequently danced for English National Ballet, National Ballet of Ireland, and BallettVorpommern in Germany. She is now a dance artist with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and a guest dancer with Company Eastman Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, both of which are based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Linda Fearon has worked with Croí Glan since 2014. She is also a dancer with Luminous Soul Dance Project and has danced with companies including Candoco Dance, Blue Eyed Soul, Maiden Voyage Dance, Echo Echo Dance, and Pony Dance. 

Performance artist and choreographer Caroline Bowditch is a performer, maker, teacher, speaker.  She has choreographed/performed work as girl jonah with Fiona Wright, created a number of her own works, and co-created work as Scottish Dance Theatre’s Dance Agent for Change (2008-2012).

Ty Boomershine, USA, studied dance at the Fort Hayes School for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ohio, completing his studies with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In New York he danced for Dan Wagoner, DANCENOISE, Gus Solomons Jr., Bill T. Jones, Ton Simons, Merce Cunningham repertory ensemble, and Lucinda Childs.  In the Netherlands he worked with Rotterdam Dance Group, Karin Post, LeineRoebana, Giulia Mureddu, Emio Greco | PC, and Nicole Beutler. In 2009 he restaged and performed in Lucinda Childs’ iconic works Dance and Available Light, and in 2012 he performed as a featured soloist in the remounting and subsequent four-year world tour of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s opera Einstein on the Beach. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Dance On Ensemble Berlin, which focuses on professional dancers over the age of 40, celebrating their lived experience by commissioning new works and reviving important radical works from contemporary dance.

Tara is a contemporary dancer and choreographer originally from West Cork, Ireland. She trained at the Laban Centre in London and has been choreographing extensively since 1990. Most recently Tara has toured her latest solo Circus to San Francisco International Arts Festival, Seattle International Dance Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and FRESH, San Francisco. Tara co-founded Croí Glan in 2004.

Morgan is a 21-year-old, world-ranked Irish dancer from America who gained popularity for posting videos performing self-choreographed dances to popular songs. Recently, she made headlines when a video of her Irish dancing to a popular contemporary song went viral on various social media platforms. Since then, she has been invited to perform with the cast of Riverdance.

Darrah Carr is the artistic director of Darrah Carr Dance, a Bessie Award-nominated professional Irish dance company that specializes in ModERIN—a unique blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance. Recent performance highlights include: Good Morning America, NBC’s The Today Show, the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the Duke Theater on 42nd Street, Celebrate Brooklyn, Victory Dance at the New Victory Theater, and the company’s annual New York City season at Irish Arts Center. Darrah Carr Dance is represented by Siegel Artist Management.

Ashley Chen trained at the CNSMD in Paris. After one project with Thomas Duchâtelet, he joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York in 2000. He moved back to Europe after four years to join the Lyon Opera Ballet where he performed works by William Forsyth, Trisha Brown, Philippe Decouflé, Christian Rizzo, and Mathilde Monnier. In 2006, Ashley decided to become a freelance dancer and worked with different choreographers throughout Europe, such as John Scott, Liz Roche, Michael Clark, Michele Ann de Mey, Philipe Decouflé, and Boris Charmatz. He also worked with Robert Swinston as a performer and assistant on works by Cunningham.

In 2012 he established Compagnie Kashyl based in Normandy (France). He has a strong desire to investigate his individual creative process leading to significant and unconventional works. He has since created Habits/Habits (2012), Whack!! (2015, in collaboration with Philip Connaughton), Chance, Space & Time (2016), Unisson (2018), Rush (2019), and Distances (January 2021).

Anna Chirescu trained at the Paris Conservatory and was an exchange student at UC Irvine. She has worked in France and abroad for different companies such as Jean-Claude Gallotta, Luc Petton, Marie-Laure Agrapart, Dance Theater Luxembourg, Liam Warren, Bill Young and Colleen Thomas, and Ashley Chen. She was a member of the CNDC Company directed by Robert Swinston between 2013 and 2020. She performed Merce Cunningham works and participated in the centennial celebration, and she has been making her own work as a choreographer since 2017. Anna also holds Masters degrees in Modern Literature and Cultural Affairs from the Sorbonne and Sciences Po Universities.

Yoshiko (conceptual artist, choreographer/artistic director of the School of Hard Knocks) has been a firebrand in the post-modern dance scene of New York City since the 1980s. She has been consistently producing thought-provoking work that is neither dance nor theatre nor film nor any other pre-determined category. She is an artist on her own journey, forging a path that has taken her to over 40 ‘out of the way’ countries and collected over 2,000 artists, thinkers, and collaborators of every genre since establishing the School of Hard Knocks in New York in 1980.

Elizabeth Corbett danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet before she moved to Europe. There, she became a soloist with William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet and danced for over a decade in works including Love Songs, Artifact, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Enemy in the Figure, Steptext, Behind the China Dogs, and other Forsythe works. Ms. Corbett now teaches ballet, improvisation technologies, and Forsythe repertory internationally. She was Dance Coordinator for Anne Teresa DeKeersmaeker's school of contemporary dance, PARTS, in Brussels from 1999-2005, and danced in a work created for her by Ms. DeKeesmaeker in a Rosas/Impulstanz production called With/For/By. She has been choreographic assistant to William Forsythe, Ms. De Keersmaeker and for Robert Wilson in productions for the Paris Opera and Rosas. Ms. Corbett has taught classes and workshops for dance companies, festivals, and schools around the world including Dance Ireland, PARTS/Rosas, Impulstanz Vienna, Cullberg Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Movement Research, Dance Platform Istanbul, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and Beijing Dance Academy. She received her MFA from Hollins University in 2019 and has contributed works in Memphis to New Ballet Ensemble Company and School since 2007.

Seán’s 35-year career includes Bessie Award winning performances with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and as an original cast member of STOMP!, 25 years as Artistic Director of Seán Curran Company, and choreography/direction for numerous opera productions. He is Chair and Arts Professor at NYU Tisch Dance.

Joan has been exploring the nature of creativity, particularly from a body-based perspective, for over 40 years. She pioneered contemporary dance in Ireland in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has experimented with collaborative art as a professional artist and therapist.

Oona is a dance artist and choreographer based in Northern Ireland. She has been performing dance theatre internationally since 2010 with companies such as TRASH (NL), Abbattoir Ferme (BE), Veronika Riz (IT), Emma Martin/United Fall (IE), and Enda Walsh (IE). Oona’s choreography has toured extensively to critical acclaim: Hope Hunt & the Ascension Into Lazarus, Hard to be Soft - A Belfast Prayer, and Lady Magma.

Justine Doswell is a dance artist, choreographer, and creative producer based in Dublin since 1997. She has worked with numerous notable Irish and international choreographers, directors, and companies. Inspired by dynamic structure and living systems, her choreographic practice has been supported by The Arts Council, Dublin City Council, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival, Dance Ireland, Dance Limerick, LD Dance Shawbrook, Liz Roche Company and The Lir Academy, THEATREClub, Dance Resource Base, The Complex, and Dublin Youth Dance Company. Justine is an Irish Modern Dance Theatre 2021 Associate Artist.

Fionnuala is a dance artist and teacher originally from Seattle and now based in Galway city. She creates within contemporary and modern forms of dance and has regularly worked with the Galway Dance Project and Genevieve Ryan Dance Academy. Most recently, Fionnuala took part in Brú Theatre’s artist development program, Remote Control, receiving mentorship from Oona Doherty.

As a choreographer/dance artist Kristyn Fontanella focuses her past knowledge of Irish step dancing and presents it in a contemporary context. Having toured for many years with Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, and as lead soloist in Gaelforce Dance, her current mission is to show another side of the complex world of Irish stepdance to future generations.

Benjamin has danced with Mark Morris Dance Group, Keigwin + Company, Seán Curran Company, Third Rail Projects’ The Grand Paradise, The Bang Group, Company XIV, Santa Fe Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera Ballet. He is an Adjunct Professor at NYU Tisch Dance and has presented his choreography in NYC.

Named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," Nic (he/they) has been hailed by The New York Times for his "dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance" and called "the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald. He reimagines movement as a musical practice, recasting dance as a medium that appeals to both eyes and ears. Nic engages many percussive dance traditions, weaving together a dance technique facilitating his love of improvisation, clog, flatfoot, and step dance footwork vocabulary, and musical collaboration.

Peggy is a New York City-based dancer, choreographer, collaborator, movement educator, and sometimes-writer. She has danced with Patricia Hoffbauer, Tiffany Osedra Miller, Cathy Weis, Sara Rudner including collaborations with John Scott and Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Joyce S. Lim, David Gordon, and Bryan Fox. Peggy has created eleven interdisciplinary works, most recently Hypnagogia (2018) presented by Dixon Place, NYC. She teaches in the Dance Program at Sarah Lawrence College and serves as assistant to mentor in functional anatomy Irene Dowd. As a Fulbright Specialist, Peggy has worked with dancers and educators in Ecuador (Summer 2019). She presented research in the Dance Science Symposium 2021 at UMass Amherst. Now, she has returned to the studio to sort through learning and vision accumulated over the past 15 months, pursuing a new phase of work inspired by Arundhati Roy’s assertion that the pandemic is a portal (Summer 2021).

Aphra is a dance artist based in Dublin. Beginning her dance training in ballet and contemporary at Shawbrook School of Dance, Aphra went on to receive a QQI Level 5 award in Dance Studies from Inchicore College of Further Education in 2019. Since then, Aphra has performed for Dublin Youth Dance Company, choreographed in La Briqueterie CDCN, and was chosen as a choreographer for NOISE Moves’ EMERGENCE 2021 programme.

Jessie is a choreographer making work that crosses over into science, visual art, architecture, and archives. Interdisciplinary connections are at the heart of her work. Her current project is Don’t Anticipate The Ending, a collaboration with composer Robbie Blake & academic researcher Dr. Zosia Kuczyńska, presented online by the Museum of Literature Ireland, Summer 2021.

Jonathan is the Artistic Director of Siamsa Tíre’s National Folk Theatre programme. He has been studying the North Kerry style of dance since the age of six and followed in the footsteps of a long line of North Kerry Dance Masters to become one of the most respected voices in discussing the style and its history and is known as one of the best exponents of the style in Ireland.

He has performed in and directed numerous productions for Siamsa Tíre, including Evolution for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Tearmann, and Rithim/Rhythm, a collaboration with Printz Dance Project. In 2009 he directed Moriarty and performed in What the Folk at the Dublin & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. He directed and performed in Anam for Dublin Dance Festival in 2016 and directed An Ghaoth Aniar for Siamsa Tíre in 2018.

Raja Feather Kelly is a choreographer, a director, and the artistic director of the feath3r theory. He is a three-time Princess Grace Award winner (2017, 2018, 2019), two-time Lucille Lortel Award nominee (2019, 2020), and 2019 Chita Rivera Award nominee. In 2020 he was the Obie Award winner and Outer Critics Circle Award honoree for choreography for the Pulitzer-winning musical A Strange Loop. In 2019, he was an SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award finalist for both A Strange Loop and the Pulitzer-winning play Fairview. Raja is also the 2019–2020 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and a 2019 Creative Capital Award recipient. He is a current fellow of HERE Arts, the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, and a creative associate at the Juilliard School. Over the past decade, Kelly has created fifteen evening-length premieres with his company the feath3r theory, as well as directing and choreographing extensively for Off-Broadway theatre in New York City. His choreography also garnered a 2018 Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) and the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography (2016), and he was Dance magazine's inaugural Harkness Promise Award (2018). He was born in Fort Hood, Texas, and holds a B.A. in dance and English from Connecticut College.

Orla grew up in Co. Longford where she began her dance training in Shawbrook. She pursued a BA in contemporary dance in Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. In 2015, Orla began working as a freelance dance artist based between Germany and the Netherlands. In 2018, Orla co-created the multidisciplinary dance project PERSON A with Max Makowski. They presented their work in Dock11, Berlin, and VonHotz SommerBox, Luzern. Since September of 2018, Orla has been working with Dance Theatre Heidelberg in Germany under the direction of Iván Pérez. Along with performing in the ensemble, she continues to create and present her own work.

Eileen has received commissions from Quotidian At the Margins 2021, Maiden Voyage Dance Company BRINK 2020, The Playhouse, Derry TURF 2019, and Tinderbox Theatre Company CUCK 2017. Under Off the Rails Dance #OTR Eileen has choreographed and produced The Dutiful Wife (2016) and S(3)nsored (2011), and received an Artist Career Enhancement Award from Arts Council NI in 2018.

Ingrid is the Artistic Director of Night Star Dance Company. She has created 15 works for it and three Experimental/Screendance films. The latter have been screened internationally and won 30 international awards. Ingrid has performed in New York (for Steve Paxton in MoMA, for Buglisi Dance Theater at Lincoln Center, and her own solo at DTW), Barcelona (La Caldera, El Graner), Buenos Aires (Centro Cultural Borges). She is represented by L’agence Silver in Paris and SOS Models in London.

Ríonach is a dance artist and curator of Galway Dance Days | Corp Real International Dance Festival and Symposium. As a performer, Ríonach has danced for many Irish choreographers including Finola Cronin, Fearghus Ó Conchúir, and Rex Levitates (now Liz Roche Dance), and was a long-time member of Tanztheater Bremen under the artistic direction of Urs Dietrich. She founded Ciotóg in 2006, for which she has choreographed eleven works that have been performed across the US, UK, Europe, and Ireland, winning international awards. Ríonach has developed dance programmes for older people, in both Irish and English, including the Macushla Dance Club in Dublin and Ar mo sheanléim in the Connemara Gaeltacht, as well as dance projects for people living with dementia and with psychiatric illness.

Fearghus is a choreographer and dance artist. Frequently collaborating with experts from across and beyond the arts, he champions dance as a way to help us understand how we live in the world. He is Deputy Chair of the Arts Council of Ireland.

Tere is the Artistic Director of Tere O’Connor Dance in NYC and a Center for Advanced Studies Professor at the University of Illinois. He has created over 40 works for his company and many commissions, including Lyon Opera Ballet and Mikhail Baryshnikov. He received a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, among numerous other grants and awards, and has won three BESSIES. He is currently researching his new work Rivulets.

Anne started her training with the National Folk Theatre, Siamsa Tíre, at the tender age of 8 and has been performing with the company for four decades. She completed an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at the University of Limerick and is currently head of Training & Development at Siamsa Tíre in Tralee.

Eoin is a choreographer from Cork city, and has studied ballet, modern, and aerial dance. He debuted as a choreographer at the Noise Moves Youth Dance Festival’s Emergence program in May 2021. He was recently accepted to begin studies in dance practices (BA) at Middlesex University, London, where he will develop his choreographic practice.

Liam is a former Oireachtas na Gaeilge winner, Liam has an MA from the Irish World Academy at University of Limerick. Between 2015 and 2017, Liam was part of the Irish-Quebecois collaboration of Sokalo Remix with Montreal-based Zeugma Danse. In 2018, Liam joined forces with sean-nós singer Lorcan MacMathuna and musician Daire Bracken to choreograph Preab Meadar.

Tobi is an internationally acclaimed B-boy (breakdancer) and Hip-Hop Freestyle dancer. Trained at Broadway Dance Centre New York, Tobi has been dancing for over 15 years and is dedicated to supporting the foundations of this dynamic and influential dance form. Tobi is curator and director of TOP 8 at Dublin Dance Festival. Now heading into its 7th year, the event continues to grow in size and popularity.

Jamie Scott works as a freelance dancer, teacher, and stager in New York City. She began her New York dance career as a member of the Cunningham Repertory Understudy group from 2007-2009, then joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company until its closure in 2011. In 2012, Jamie was hired to join the Trisha Brown Dance Company and continues to be an active performer, teacher and stager. She has also worked with Daniel Gwirtzman, Kimberly Bartosik, Bill Young, and Liz Gerring. She has taught at Barnard College, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, NYU, the CND Paris and CNDC Angers, and leads workshops in the New York area (and remotely!) for the Merce Cunningham Trust and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. In addition, Jamie is a licensed stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, most recently co-staging Merce’s Scenario on the Lyon Opera Ballet in fall 2019. She is the recipient of a 2014 Princess Grace Award.

Ciara is an Irish dancing professional, choreographer, lecturer, television announcer, and presenter. She is a five-time World & All-Ireland Champion and has starred as lead dancer in Riverdance, Heartbeat of Home, and in both Lord of the Dance and Lord of the Dance 3D alongside Michael Flatley. After producing, directing, and choreographing her first commercial Irish dance show The Celtic Gift in 2017, in 2019 Ciara directed, choreographed and starred in a new production, Fainne Oir, which premiered to sold-out crowds in Ireland and then on Broadway. Ciara has been a lecturer at The Irish World Academy at The University of Limerick since 2014.

Morleigh Steinberg, a native of Los Angeles, California, is a dancer/choreographer, lighting designer, filmmaker, and visual artist. She has toured with Momix, ISO Dance, and ARCANE Collective, and has shot and directed several dance films. Morleigh co-founded ARCANE Space in Venice, California, producing and presenting visual arts in a “gallery” setting.

Róisín is a dancer and choreographer based in Carlow. As a performer, Róisín has worked with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Black Box Dance Company.

Minte is a professional contemporary dance artist who graduated with an MA from the University of Limerick. He's the artistic director of Mintesinot Wolde Dance Company. He’s an active member of Dance Ireland, artist panelist for Roscommon County Council, and was recently appointed as a new board member of Galway Dance Project.

Mary is a dance artist whose work spans live performance, the moving image, and curation. Interdisciplinarity is a key feature in her work, with collaborations connecting widely across a range of artists and contexts. Her work is experienced on stage, in cinematic and exhibition contexts, with work presented and commissioned both in Ireland and internationally for venues, galleries, and festivals.

Chris and Taryn create original dance works that are deadpan slapstick, understated melodrama, autobiographical science-fiction, cubist vaudeville, asymmetrically consonant explorations of magic and virtuosity in everyday movement. Steve Morrison’s art uses paint, animation, digital processes, and sculpture to enact a tragicomic theater of impermanence.

Nigerian/Irish performer Mufutau is a graduate of Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance currently working as a freelance artist between Ireland and Brussels. His interest lies in multi-disciplinarity, which he aims to implement in his own works.