21st February 2025

On Saturday 1st March, Mags, with DU Dance board member Marie O’Donoghue, hosted a workshop session at the New Visions Symposium.

The event was part of a wider project, supported by the Freelands Foundation, which will explores the current challenges facing post-primary arts education in Northern Ireland and imagines possible solutions.

The symposium took place at The MAC, Belfast, and was designed for people who are passionate about rethinking arts education including head teachers, art teachers, artists, academics, and policymakers. The day featured panels and discussions focused on the key educational issues identified by those working in the field.

In their popular session, Mags and Marie examined the Creative Schools Partnership programme. It is a cross-government programme that Marie runs and that targets schools located within the Urban Village areas of Northern Ireland, encouraging them to think outside of traditional learning approaches and introduce professional artists into classrooms in order to build student confidence, make community connections and develop new skills. DU Dance (NI) has been involved in the programme for a number of years delivering workshops and intergenerational community dance projects. Through informative and practical fun activities, Mags and Marie demonstrated the role of the creative arts in education and advocated the arts as an invaluable tool for facilitating personal and social development.

The Creative Schools Programme is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Education Authority and the Urban Villages Initiative.

(Marie O’Donoghue is Creative Schools Manager School Improvement, School Development Service at Education Authority NI)

18th February 2025

At the end of half term the Youth Steering Group met for a weekend at Crawfordsburn Country Park.  For some members of the group it was their first YSG residential, for others it was a welcome return to a favourite place.  Indeed during the pandemic, the activity centre hosted many a Belfast Boy session, residential stays and even two chilly outdoor Days of Dance!

During this stay the group worked with Cheryl O’Dwyer who, among many talents, is an experienced  drama teacher and youth worker.  The group will be compering our annual dance platform Unanimous on 17th April 2025 and Cheryl’s practical session explored effective communication, presenting with clarity, and how to inject energy and enthusiasm.

Bringing all they had learnt together, the group started writing their introduction which we look forward to seeing at Unanimous soon.   Other workshops over the weekend included creating content for social media which introduces the Youth Steering Group.  You can watch these videos on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

In between all the hard work, lots of fun was had including a spooky midnight walk! The centre, with access to the beach and woods, friendly staff and fun things to do is always a big hit with the group. Thank you for hosting us again.

17th February 2025

5th February 2025

On Sunday 2nd February, on behalf of DU Dance, Mags attended Belfast Cathedral’s annual Good Samaritans’ Service to receive a very welcome donation from The 2024 Black Santa Sit Out Appeal.

Mags enjoyed meeting special guest Lady Mary Peters and took great delight in hearing Peter Corry sing during the service.

This year’s Sit Out raised over £200,000, all of which has been shared out among over 107 local charities. Representatives of The Belfast Charitable Society marked the 250th anniversary of the opening of Clifton House on Christmas Eve 1774 by contributing an amazing £73,600 to this year’s total.

This generous donation will immensely benefit Alternative Energies, our intergenerational dance programme in Ballycastle.

4th February 2025

It is the last opportunity to see the stunning photography exhibition produced by our Sutemos group with the support and guidance of professional photographer Jim Corr.

The exhibition ‘Seen / Unseen’ will be at Hill of The O’Neill and Ranfurly House Arts & Visitor Centre in Dungannon until 27 February.  Do call in if you are in the area.

The idea for the exhibition originated from the young people experiencing first hand how social media can mask the reality of peoples lives.

Thanks to funders BBC Children in Need for their support.

31st January 2025

We were excited to embark on an exciting new project with members of the Newtownabbey Women’s Group in Rathcoole this week.

The dance workshop was the first of a series that will take place in women’s centres across North Belfast and is called ‘Journeys’.  It was lovely to meet some new and friendly faces and we look forward to dancing and learning together.

This spring, as well as working with our women’s group CARE based at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, we will be working with:

• Listening Ear Women’s Group, Rathcoole
• Newtownabbey Women’s Group
• Barron Hall Women’s Group, Glengormley

This project is funded by Clanmil Housing Association.

16th January 2025

We were incredibly pleased to receive funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland to support Alternative Energies – our community-based arts project benefitting older people.  The funding received is part of the National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme, a pioneering initiative funded by The National Lottery and Public Health Agency, which aims to tackle loneliness as-well as promote positive mental health and well-being among older people, through engagement with the arts.

The National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme was established by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2010 and is now a cross-governmental partnership with funding also from the Public Health Agency. The programme has been designed to challenge perceptions of what it means to be an older person, empower participants, and give older people a voice. To date the programme has provided over £2m funding to community organisations and voluntary groups across Northern Ireland in the delivery of over 272 arts projects to older people.

Alternative Energies is an intergenerational dance project which brings together young people aged 15-18 years with elders 65+ in Ballycastle, County Antrim, to meet, create and have fun.  By taking part in dance workshops and performances, older and young people from the same community are given an important opportunity to engage in the arts.

Alternative Energies is free to join and sessions take place weekly on a Wednesday from 4pm to 5:30pm starting again on Wednesday 22nd January 2025.  They take place in Sheskburn Recreation Centre, 7 Mary St, Ballycastle BT54 6QH.   For more information, please contact deborah@dudanceni.com.

We are looking forward to seeing you all there and if you haven’t been before, come along and give it a go! 

Thanks to National Lottery Players and money raised for good causes for the continued support for this programme.

15th January 2025

On Friday 10th January, Artistic Director Mags Byrne was invited to talk at the AHRC Critical Dance Pedagogy Network: Symposium 4: Leadership and Futures in the Drama and Film Centre at Queen’s University Belfast.

The network has been established to foster networking, collaboration, knowledge exchange, and exploration of some transformative practices in Critical Dance Pedagogy.  At these events practitioners and academics from the field of dance engage in discussions and workshops around addressing social assumptions, structural power relations, and inequities within dance and dance education.

Asked to reflect upon her career in the sector, Mags spoke of her experience working in a variety of settings, including internationally and in conflict zones.  Of particular note was her exploration of how dance sits within the cultural landscape in Northern Ireland and the differences compared to other contexts.

The day finished aptly with DU Dance’s Belfast Boys who gave an upbeat and fun-filled performance about which Aoife McGrath, Professor of Dance at Queen’s University Belfast, said:

“…the performance by the Belfast Boys was just a fantastic way to bring some joy and hope to the space.”

Thank you Aoife for inviting DU Dance to be part of this key event.

18th December 2024

Did you know between April 2023 and March 2024 we delivered 31 performance events and 6 film screenings?

Read all about those, and what else we were up to, in our brand new Annual Report by clicking on the link below:

Annual Report 2023-24

16th December 2024

Eight dancers from our Youth Engagement project Sutemos were in Limerick for the weekend with partner organisation Youth Dance Limerick. The group is part of the Youth Dance Matters research, a collaboration between Queens University Belfast and University College Dublin.

Hosted by Dance Limerick in their wonderful studio in John’s Square, the dancers worked with Prof. Aoife McGrath and Dr. Victoria Durrer. They had a ball and loved the work, the city and even the 8 hour bus journey, which became an extended chance for a sing song!

Thank you to all for treating us so wonderfully.