MeetShareDance: An Inclusive Dance Festival

27th August 2019

Open Arts celebrated the 10th anniversary of its dance group Luminous Soul by hosting the prestigious ‘MeetShareDance’ inclusive dance festival in Belfast from 5th – 7th September 2019.

Luminous Soul is the only contemporary dance development programme for disabled people in Northern Ireland and features members who have a range of disabilities: physical, sensory, learning disabilities and mental health illness.

MeetShareDance is an international workshop dance festival which is based around the ideas of inclusivity and exchange. It aims to discover changes in the world of dance and disability and to raise the profile of integrated dance in artistic and everyday life. The festival has previously taken place in Porto, Madrid, Helsinki, Berlin, Lubjana and Dublin – this was its first visit to Northern Ireland.

Forty dancers (amateur & professional) from eight countries – Spain, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg, UK, Slovenia – took part in three days of inclusive dance workshops at the Crescent Arts Centre. Participants in MeetShareDance then showcased their skills to the public with a performance of a newly devised collaborative piece in Belfast’s Cornmarket on Saturday 7th September.

The festival proved to be a wonderful celebration – congratulations to Open Arts and to all involved.

For further information on Luminous Soul and MeetShareDance, visit www.openartsni.org