We are thrilled to announce the recipients of our 2026 North West Dance Residency Call Out:
Tara-Marie Bredemeier – Galway Dance
Louise Holian – Roscommon Arts Centre
Kelly Keesing – Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo
Steve Batts – An Grianán, Letterkenny
Rachel Sheil – Áras Éanna Arts Centre, Inis Oírr
The purpose of the North-West Dance Residency Programme is to build and create a supportive framework for dance in the north-west region, through provision of space, a financial stipend and access to practical supports such as production advice, accessing funding streams and mentoring.
This programme is made possible through partnership with a number of local authority arts offices in Galway (city & county), Roscommon and Mayo; and a number of venues: Áras Éanna (Inis Oirr), An Grianán (Letterkenny), Roscommon Arts Centre and Ballina Arts Centre. As the main resource for professional dance in the North West region, Galway Dance manages all aspects of this programme and is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Keep an eye out for updates from their residencies.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tara-Marie Bredemeier – Tara is a dance artist whose movement practice intersects between contemporary and street dance. She has freelanced in Ireland since 2023, as she is born in Germany. In Ireland her work has been dedicated to researching movement practices such as floorwork, waving and more. Connecting with the irish breaking community in 2024 inspired her to direct her solo practice in a new direction and her breaking is something she is keen to progress in 2026 after finishing her Masters in Dance Performance at the University of Limerick. Furthermore she has worked as a performer (Catherine Young, Fidget Feet) and pedagogue in Dance (DublinYouthDanceCompany, AnBlocc).
Louise Holian – Louise is an actor/writer/maker & mover from Ballygar in Co Galway, graduated from Dartington College of Arts, Devon in ’07 with BA in Theatre (Devising) with Choreographic Practices. Over the many years since, she’s worked extensively as a arts practitioner, youth worker, performer and facilitator in the arts/youth & community/ fitness & health promotion sectors working with all ages and backgrounds. She’s passionate about making and supporting the arts to be more accessible for all and exploring the many possibilities of what physical theatre/ dance & storytelling can be.
Kelly Keesing – Kelly Keesing is an Australian–Irish dance artist based in Ireland, working across choreography and performance. She trained at Tanya Pearson Academy in Sydney and Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden, and has performed internationally with companies such as Ballet National de Marseille (LA)Horde, Bern Ballett, and Ballett Theater Basel, as well as working as a freelance artist. Alongside her work as a performer, she is currently developing a choreographic practice that engages sound, repetition, and memory as structuring forces, across a series of national and international residencies.
Steve Batts – has over forty years professional experience as a movement and dance artist. After teenage years in Counties Antrim and Derry he went to England to study Politcs, Philosophy and Economics and then worked internationally as a dance artist before returning to Ireland in 1997. He is artistic director of Derry based, Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company. Among many other dance influences his work is deeply influenced by his long practice of Contact Improvisation, as well as by theatre, music and visual art and the comparative exploration of these in relation to dance. His work is also deeply influenced by the Alexander Technique, which he has taught since qualifying in 1987. He is known for developing an approach to dance that he calls “poetic movement” which has a unique way of nesting the analytic elements in dancing inside the intuitive elements and relating our everyday movement lives to the art of movement.
Rachel Sheil – Rachel is a teacher, choreographer and performer newly-based in County Galway, after participating in the Limerick City dance scene since 2008. Trained with a BA and MA in Contemporary Dance, Rachel also received an ADPA in Street Dance from Urban Strides, London. Rachel is the founder and former Artistic Director of Limerick Youth Dance Company and, most recently, she has become part of “The Parsley Collective”, a 5-member group of dancers from Limerick City, recently awarded Dance Limerick’s Dancers in Residence. Rachel has worked with John Scott, Lea Anderson, David Bolger, Laura Murphy and Deirdre Griffin and has created a myriad of dance on video work presented on her YouTube channel “rikilikemagic” with over 12k subscribers. Her choreographic work derives movement from fantasy media, anime and comic books. She is passionate about the accessibility of Contemporary Dance and wants to invite people into worlds of possibilities through her artwork.