North West Dance Residency Recipients 2025
Congrats to our North West residency recipients!
Jack Philp
Jenny Tufts
Kate Wilson
Ayesha Mailey
Cindy Cummins
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, The Town Hall Theatre Galway, 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.
ABOUT THE RECIPIENTS
Jenny Tufts is an American-born, Sligo-based movement artist specialising in aerial and vertical dance. She’s internationally known for her innovative style of aerial hoop, and when she’s not touring, Jenny brings dozens of students from as far away as Taiwan and Australia to the west coast of Ireland to learn her technique. Since moving to Ireland in 2020, she has performed for a medley of companies including Fidget Feet (IE) THISISPOPBABY (IE), Fool’s Delight (UK), Disneyland Paris (FR), Mignon (DE), and Le Monastère (CA), among others. She is currently developing her first solo-authored, full-length show: How to Have Fun as an Adult.
Ayesha Mailey is a freelance dance artist and ensemble member of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company. With over 25 years’ experience, she works across the North West and internationally as a performer, teacher, choreographer and improviser. Ayesha specialises in Poetic Movement, a practice she develops through professional and participatory projects with people of all ages and abilities. She has collaborated widely across Europe and the Middle East, and her work has taken her to Ireland, England, New York, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Italy and Hong Kong to research, teach, and perform.
Kate Wilson has a background in dance, visual art, and inclusive collaborative practice. Along with transdisciplinary research, she is artistic director of integrated performance company Undercurrent. Founded in 2016, Undercurrent creates immersive, site specific and inclusive theatre performances in collaboration with artists who have diverse experiences of mobility. Performances and projects include Winter Ground (performed double bill with IMDT), Magnetise (shortlisted for LAMA awards), intergenerational performance Unearth toured in 2022, Landing Places 2023, Cusp 2024, From Here A Bridge 2024, and Earthfall 2025. Projects are widely supported by Arts Council Ireland, local funding bodies and festivals.
Cindy Cummings is a freelance dance artist who creates original collaborative works with dance, theatre, visual, sound, literary and media artists around the world for live performance, installation and film. Cindy is based in Kilkenny, Ireland where she has worked with award winning Asylum Productions creating socially engaged, site specific theatre work. Currently she is a facilitator on the Inclusive Dance Cork course at Dance Cork Firkin Crane and is a contributor to the SHINE Erasmus+ project through IDC. Since 2007 Cindy has been a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland.
Jack Philp is an internationally recognised choreographer and Artistic Director of Jack Philp Dance. His work combines live dance, digital technology, and science, touring across Europe and the UK. Recent commissions include the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Dublin Youth Dance Company, and FABRIC CAT. He is currently developing his new production We live in an old chaos of the sun. Jack’s practice spans stage, screen, and immersive media, with collaborations across fashion, dance, sound and technology. He has created work for Intoto Dance Company, NDCWales, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and the National Ballet of Jersey. A Clore Leadership alum and experienced facilitator, Jack was formerly Rehearsal Director and Engagement Artist at NDCWales, and continues to lead in professional and youth contexts.
