23rd June 2017

In May/June DU Dance teamed up with Beyond Skin to deliver part 1 of Building Bridges – Care.  With the support of Lisburn Central Library the team delivered a series of music, dance and storytelling workshops with local young people, which resulted in  pop-up performances across Lisburn City Centre. The performances marked World Refugee Day 2017. The sun shone, the shoppers boogied along and the fun was mighty….

Well done to everyone involved. Watch out for parts 2 & 3 of this project which could be in your area!!!

15th June 2017

DU Dance (NI) with Beyond Skin present, Building Bridges, an intercultural arts performance arising from an exciting new venture exploring human stories through music, storytelling and dance with young people aged 12 to 18 years in the Lisburn and Ballymena areas.

This outreach project led by a team of four professional artists – Thomas Annang, Ghanaian drummer Nandi Jola, South African Storyteller with contemporary dance artists and choreographers Mags Byrne and Conor ‘Doke’ O’Kane from Northern Ireland will culminate in two special, free, public events on Tuesday 20th June in Lisburn Market Square and on Wednesday June 21st at The Braid Arts Centre, Ballymena to mark World Refugee Day and World Music Day with performances also by Orchestre des Réfugiés et Amis.

The “Refugee Orchestra” is an intercultural music project developed by Beyond Skin to create shared welcoming spaces for musicians with Refugee or Asylum status to collaborate, socialise and creatively express their culture with a diversity of professional musicians. The group has sparked much curiosity and is the inspirational sound of humanity at its best.

The event is funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland.

Building Bridges Showcase – World Refugee Day

Tuesday June 20th

Pop-up performances from 3pm-5pm – Lisburn, Market Square – Phone: 028 9033 0956

Music Day Showcase

Wednesday June 21st

Show starts 7.30pm   Ends 9.30pm – The Braid Arts Centre, 1-29 Bridge Street – Phone: 028 2563 5077 – Tickets here.

18th May 2017

In May we had two brilliant days at our annual Primary Dance Festival, which took place at Belvoir Players Studio Theatre, with schools across Belfast.  Big thanks to the pupils and teachers from  Belmont, Donegall Road, Elmgrove, Glenwood, Holy Rosary and Holy Trinity Primary Schools. It was a brilliant celebration of many styles of dance and we are already looking forward to next year! Thank you to Debs, Elizabeth, Jane and Sheena for your support. Photography by Joe Fox, full album available on our Facebook.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY – the Primary Dance Festival 2018 will be on 16th & 17th May, again at Belvoir Players Studio Theatre, Belfast. All Primary Schools in the Greater Belfast area are welcome, it’s free so come and join in the fun.

9th May 2017

In April/May Mags was in Gaza working alongside choreographer Royston Maldoom on a production for Ayam Al Masrah (Theatre Day Productions). The resulting performance, Identity, was truly beautiful and well received by audiences all over Gaza and the West Bank.

Mags would like to say

“A huge THANK YOU to Royston and all at TDP for an amazing experience. It was a total pleasure to work with you all”. 

TDP was establishment in 1995 to work towards increasing access to creative activities for children and youth in an attempt to create the foundations for peaceful development in Palestine.

25th April 2017

Big thanks to everyone who joined us for Unanimous 2017 at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, including; Alternative Energies (Ballymoney), Brona Jackson Dance Company (Derry/L’derry), Company B (Dublin), Connect Youth Dance (Fermanagh), Dublin Youth Dance Company, Inchicore College (Dublin), Moongate Dance Theatre (Galway), Sutemos Youth Dance (Dungannon) & Wicklow Youth Dance Company.  Thanks also to our MC Conor “Doke’ O’Kane and our photographer Joe Fox.  It was a brilliant night and the standard of work was fantastic.

Well done to Company B for their subsequent performance at the U.Dance festival in Birmingham.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY …….Unanimous 2018 will be on Sunday 8th April, again at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. We hope to see you all again there!

18th April 2017

Are you aged between 14 – 24? Have you got a passion for dance or the performing arts? Not afraid to speak out?
We are looking for people to represent the Greater Belfast area on our existing Youth Steering Group. The current group of 14 members help to inform and develop DU Dance NI’s work and represent us at events locally and further afield.

Think that sounds like you? Get in contact with info@dudanceni.com or by messaging us on Facebook

11th April 2017

The countdown is on for Unanimous Dance Platform 2017. Only 12 days to go! Get your tickets at here!

10th March 2017

Very proud of our Youth Steering Group members that helped out with stage management at the Y.Dance Destinations Showcase in the Tramways in Glasgow this weekend. The group members worked excellently with the YDance team and represented DU Dance brilliantly, helping to manage rehearsal times and the during the live event. Well done everyone!

6th March 2017

We’ve had a fantastic 2 weeks teaming up with Beyond Skin to bring 18 ‘CARE’ intercultural workshops to schools and community groups across Lisburn, Castlereagh, East Belfast, Ballymena and Ballymoney. The workshops showcased introductions to a variety of cultures including Jamaican dancing, Ghanaian drumming, storytelling from South African and a mix of other cultures. We would like to say a massive thanks to all the groups involved and to our facilitators Ripton, Sheena, Thomas and Nandi!

3rd February 2017

YDance Routes Destinations is an annual performance event open to all youth dance groups across Scotland in March. It’s an exciting performance opportunity offering groups the chance to showcase their own creative piece of work to a live audience. DU Dance are delighted to be invited to attend, with two members of our Youth Steering Group giving a hand in project support.