29th May 2015
Our message was get active, get creative & get dancing with DU Dance this summer. Led by Sheena Kelly two week-long summer schools packed a punch for young people in the Dungannon area and took place at the Ranfurly House Arts & Visitor Centre, Dungannon.
6th March 2015
Belvoir Players Theatre
Wednesday 20th May 2015 (P1-3) & Thursday 21st May 2015 (P4-7)
This fun, exciting non-competitive event incorporated all styles of dance at all levels by children of primary school age. It is a chance for pupils and teachers to share their dance work with other schools and for the children to see a guest professional dance performance in a theatre setting.
Schools taking part this year were Belmont Primary School, Donegall Road Primary School, Finaghy Primary School, Glenwood Primary School, Hazelwood Integrated Primary School and St Therese of Lisieux Primary School. We welcomed for the first time 100 children from Belvoir Park Primary School as audience members.
Students from Belfast Metropolitan College were our guest performers.
The event is organised by DU Dance with the support of Belfast Education & Library Board
20th February 2015
Come along and join Merge Cru – Belfast based youth dance group fusing Hip Hop & dance theatre…. no experience necessary all we need is your time and energy!
Free sessions – New group running Sundays, 3-5pm from 29th March 2015, Dance Resource Base Studio, 35 Donegall Street, Belfast
For more info contact DU Dance on tel. 9033 0956 or email info@dudanceni.com
11th December 2014
DU Dance is pleased to announce that our BBC Performing Arts Fellow for 2015 is Brona Jackson. We are absolutely delighted! Welcome on board Brona, looking forward to an exciting year ahead.
For more info click here
DU Dance is grateful to the BBC Performing Arts Fund for supporting Brona during this year.
25th November 2014
DU Dance have three youth dance groups running in Ballymoney, Belfast and Dungannon. If you are between 12 – 21years and want to dance come along a try the groups out. Each group has a slightly different focus and no previous experience of dance is necessary, but be prepared to sweat!! Details are on our website or give us a call.
This is a photo of some of the dancers from Sutemos (Dungannon) – as they performed in Armagh at the Marketplace Theatre. They performed at Armagh Jail on the same evening in September for Culture Night. Now they are working hard devising a new piece for the Unanimous Youth Dance Platform in December.
Youth groups Merge Cru (Belfast) and Alernative Energies (Ballymoney) were both involved in our performance project Fallen. After a weeks break, Alternative Energies workshops start back Friday 21st November in the Dance Studio in the Joey Dunlop Centre. Please follow us on facebook for updates on Merge Cru.
Our three inter-generational short films continue to gain screenings reaching a wider audience from as far afield as Fastnett, Glasgow, Brittany, Frankfurt, Manchester , Limerick and now back to Belfast.
In November 2014, a screening took place at the Second Chance Cinema Weekender, South Bank Playhouse, Belfast…. in February 2015 the films were selected by R-Space Gallery in Lisburn as part of a series of #VISIONING and on Saturday 21 February Back to the Wall – our men and boys film choreographed by Royston Maldoom – will screen at the Takeover Film Festival at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast with an introduction by Mags Byrne, Artistic Director.
We’re especially pleased to be part of Takeover Film – a festival designed, programmed and run by a team of young people from Northern Ireland.
Our 4th Unanimous youth dance performance platform took place in December 2014 , at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. This celebration event gives youth groups from all over Northern Ireland a chance to perform their work in front of a public audience and their peers.
MC Conor ‘Doke’ O’Kane compered an exciting evening of new dance from groups from Ballymoney; Belfast; Derry/L’Derry and Dungannon.
DU Dance, working collaboratively with STEP (South Tyrone Empowerment Project), brought a unique intercultural programme of work to Dungannon culminating in a fantastic performance in the Market Square on Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th April .
Inspired from the legends, myths and heroes from around the world Heroes on the Hill celebrated our diverse and separate histories. 60 young people took to the stage in and through music, dance and storytelling captured our imaginations engaging and celebrating as they reclaimed our hill of many heroes.
Heroes on the Hill, Dungannon. The sun warmed my bones and the performance warmed my heart, your project was a shining example of what the Intercultural Arts Programme was established for!
Joan Dempster, ACNI Arts Development Officer, Community Arts
Went to see Heroes on the Hill show on Sunday in Market Square Dungannon. Amazing show ……. Well done to the organisers & all of the young people involved, an absolute credit to you all. Hope to see this type of show again in Dungannon. Brought together young people from all different traditions, races & backgrounds. This is how to do it no doubt!
Cllr Linda Dillon, Chair Mid Ulster Council
Principal Funder: Arts Council of Northern Ireland with support from Dungannon Arts Forum, Mid Ulster Council Good Relations Programme & Dungannon Youth Resource Centre.
21st October 2014
FALLEN – the final performance in DU Dance (NI)’s three year long inter-generational programme – Alternative Energies – designed to bring people of all ages together to work and create – took place at the atmospheric Titanic Drawing Offices on 9th, 10th & 11th November 2014 to mark the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of World War I.
The six- week long project and performance included people from across Belfast and Ballymoney aged 9 to 90 years.
FALLEN does not tell a narrative story of World War I, make any political comment or attempt to historically recreate images from that time, instead it is an exploration of the human cost for those who went to war and those who remained at home.
” Excellent – a powerful dance performance – evocative, thought provoking theme sensitively treated – challenges war!”
“Excellent, superb, outstanding performance, moving & compassionate”
“Show was excellent, great to see so many different age groups working together”
“Beautiful moving piece of dance! Lovely inter-generational work”
“Seldom see different ages performing together”
“inter-generational work is powerful for so many reasons”
10th September 2014
A lovely note to us all from one of our dancers heading off to university to further her dance studies .. We wish you the very best and thank you for all your work with the company, keep in touch!
Dear all of you,
I haven’t known you for long but have a lot to be thankful for. The last, barely two years, were amazing and full of new and exciting experiences for me, both on professional and personal level. I’ve got to know many great people and all and everyone inspired me in some way. Thanks to the many projects I had the chance to take part in, I’ve become a more confident dancer who believes there is light at the end of the tunnel after all. I’ve got a taste of real hard work and I finally could be passionate about dance in the right environment. I’ve also learned that being shouted at may actually mean encouragement.. still having doubts at times but it surely toughens one up – in the right way 🙂 I think the work DU Dance is doing is incredible, amazing and definitely something everyone should know about and experience. While I’m leaving for university and for getting more experience in dancing and life, I’m hoping I can still be helpful in one way or another.