Step Up Dance Project is a programme of professional development for recent dance graduates or equivalent early-career dance professionals in partnership between the Arts Council of Ireland, Dance Limerick, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and Dance Ireland.
This year’s five dancers will participate in a performance project with choreographer Mufutau Yusuf, which will give them the opportunity to perform in different locations nationally, including Limerick and Dublin. Curated by Director of Dance Limerick Mary Wycherley and delivered under the guidance of Rehearsal Director, Lucia Kickham, the programme is focused on developing artists as performers while recognising the creativity necessary in the performer’s work.
This year’s Step Up Dance Project participants are:
Aine Kidney
Áine began dancing at a young age, training in the United States before moving to Ireland and joining the Irish National Youth Ballet in 2019. In 2022, Áine began her studies at the School of Ballet Theatre UK studying ballet, contemporary and jazz. During her studies, she joined Ballet Theatre UK Company on their National Tour of the Nutcracker, before graduating with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Ballet Performance. Following graduation, Áine joined the Elephant in the Black Box Company (FR) where she performed a variety of classical and contemporary works and gained invaluable experience by working with an array of guest artists and choreographers from companies including Bevar Damn Company, IVONA Dance Company, Sidi Larbi Company and Paris Opera Ballet. Since moving back home, Áine has been freelancing and reconnecting with the dance community in Ireland and is really excited to be a part of Step Up 2026.
Alison O’Shea
Alison is a Dublin-based dancer and stage manager whose practice exists between performance and production. She began training in ballet with Wicklow School of Dance at a young age and then modern and street dance with FYI Dance Club Wicklow. She later joined Dublin Youth Dance Company, developing in her contemporary style. Alison graduated from The Lir Academy in 2024 with a degree in Stage Management and Technical Theatre, and has since worked with Luail, Ireland’s National Dance Company, touring nationally with productions of CHORA, REVERB, and TROJANS. She has also toured internationally with Impasse by Mufutau Yusuf. Her focus is in stage management for dance, with a clear understanding of production demands and how to best support dancers within the structure of a work. In 2024, she presented a work-in-progress, Paroxysm, at the Irish Youth Dance Festival 2024. She is excited to continue developing her work through the Step Up Dance Project, collaborating with other artists and further expanding her dance practice.
Mayara Pessanha
Mayara Pessanha began her contemporary dance journey with Laois Youth Dance Ensemble (LYDE) in 2015. Between 2020–2022, she completed two years of professional dance training in Ireland before continuing her studies with a further two years of training in Portugal, graduating in 2024. Mayara has performed at Laois Dance Platform, presenting the duet Ressonance in 2024, co-created with Itzel Limón, and her solo Nomadic Echoes in 2025. In 2025–2026, she toured Portugal as a company dancer with Sete Anos. Her artistic practice explores themes of identity, memory, belonging, and human connection, often drawing on personal experiences and collaborative processes to create emotionally resonant work. Alongside her performance practice, Mayara teaches and choreographs for Laois Youth Dance Ensemble and Laois Dance Academy. Now back in Ireland, she is excited to build new collaborations, deepening artistic connections, and continuing to expand her choreographic and performance practice. She is delighted to be part of Step Up 2026.
Jyoti Soni
Jyoti Soni is a contemporary dance artist and movement practitioner, currently based between Ireland and India. Her practice moves across dance, text, and everyday materials, engaging with themes of femininity, care, and imagined motherhood. She works through improvisation and quiet experimentation, often using simple objects and repetitive actions to explore the body as a site of memory, intimacy, and transformation. Her ongoing explorations draw from personal and cultural lineages, tracing and re-imagining connections to home, body, and belonging. Her work navigates inner landscapes and questions of presence through subtle, embodied acts of stillness, crossing, and return.
Sarah Flavelle
Sarah is a dance artist from Belfast. She graduated from The Institute of the Arts Barcelona with a First Class BA (Hons) Dance and continued her training at DART Studios Professional Training Intensive in Berlin. Her performance work includes ‘Everynothing’, choreographed by Salma Ataya, presented as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival’s exchange project, Our Voices Together Now. Sarah has collaborated with various companies incl. Maiden Voyage Dance, Off the Rails, The National Gallery, The Playhouse, Fidget Feet Aerial Dance and Róisín Whelan Dance. She has performed in music videos for Jamie Duffy and And So I Watch You From Afar. Sarah has presented her own choreographic work at Six Dance Collective’s Dance in Motionand Creative Holywood’s Afternoon of Dance. Recently, Sarah co-choreographed and performed in a site-specific duet funded through Match Make by Maiden Voyage Dance. She also took part in a pilot programme with the Maiden Voyage Dance | Luail partnership to build a sustainable participatory dance practice
Watch this space for more on the #stepup2026 participants and team.
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Step Up Dance Project is a partnership project between the Arts Council, Dance Limerick, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and Dance Ireland. Step Up’s participation in the placement programme is possible thanks to a partnership with Luail – Ireland’s National Dance Company
