The five dancers will work with dance artist and choreographer Maria Nilsson Waller on the creation of a new dance piece to be premiered at Dance Limerick in early August. Together with guest artists Finola Cronin, Deirdre Griffin, Mary Nunan, Mufutau Yusuf and Justine Cooper, rehearsals director Lucia Kickham will lead an intensive programme of classes and creative workshops that will focus on widening horizons and exploring new ways of performing together.
Watch this space for more information on the participants and the #Stepup2023 programme.
Ghaliah Conroy
Ghaliah Conroy is a multidisciplinary performer and maker from Dublin. Since graduating from Fontys School of Performing Arts in 2022 with a degree in Dance and Choreography, she has choreographed a piece for the Dublin Fringe Festival and danced with companies such as Coisceim and Irish Modern Dance Theatre. Ghaliah describes herself as an intuitive and passionate dance maker, with a theatrical and expressive approach to her practice.
Fionnuala Doyle Wade
Fionnuala Doyle Wade is a dancer from Seattle, currently based in Galway. She has worked with Galway Dance Project, Macnas, Baboró International Arts Festival for Children and with Erik Kaiel of Arch 8 (Netherlands) on The Streets Are Ours, a Galway 2020 project with Baboró. Fionnuala has received residencies from Shawbrook, Galway Dance Project and Dance Ireland; and was a recipient of an Arts Council Agility Award. Most recently, she has performed for choreographers Laura Murphy and Minte Wolde, and in Muc Rí directed by Phillip Doherty and choregraphed by Eoin MacDonncha (GIAF 2022).
Saoirse Lambkin O’Kane
Saoirse Lambkin O’Kane is a freelance dance artist from Dublin. She graduated from Fontys Dance Academy in 2022. During her time at Fontys Saoirse participated in multiple projects, working with choreographers like Patricia van Deutekom, Andreas Hannes, Guilherme Miotto and Schweigman&. Since completing her studies, she has worked with Ali Clarke in her immersive performance ‘Multitudes: Vessel’ and has collaborated with Ghaliah Conroy and Roberta Ceginskaite in ‘Saoirse na mBan’, which they performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2022.
Ben Sullivan
Ben is a Dublin based dance artist with a passion for choreography and progressive artistic practice. From an early age, he started working with Company B, an all boys amateur dance company held in Dance House. During this time Ben worked on “It Folds” a joint collaboration between Brokentalkers and Junk Ensemble, which won “Best Performer in Dublin Fringe 2016”. After a period of training in Fontys Dance Academy, Ben returned to Ireland and has since then had the opportunity to learn from and work with; Keren Rosenberg, Oona Doherty, Muirne Bloomer, and Alexandre Iseli. Ben’s focus for the future is to expand vocabulary in order to contribute to building an expansive but unified artistic community within Ireland.
Jessie Thompson
Jessie Thompson is a Dublin based Dance Artist specialising in Experimental Contemporary and Hip Hop dance. Jessie was programmed by Dublin Dance Festival and Top 8 Streetdance Platform for a solo work with a live musician, she performed in Night Dances United Fall in Dublin theatre Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has worked with OnetwoOneTwo, TasteinYourMouth, Liz Roche and Monica Muñoz a.o. she has created work for Dance2Connect Ireland and UK Festivals. Jessie works in Film as a Choreographer and Movement Director with Irish Production houses such as TinyArk, MotherLand, Bold and Cltv. She is heavily immersed in the Irish Street Dance Community, hosting battles and workshops and her own Live Music and Dance events with Jason McNamara.
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Step Up Dance Project is a partnership between the Arts Council Ireland, Dance Limerick and the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick.
