Creative Youth Dance Artist in Residency Programme with GRETB
In late 2025 we developed our iDance dance crews, which we started in 2024, into the Creative Youth Dance Artist in Residency programme.
The Creative Youth DAR is a programme focused on youth-led dance crews that facilitate dance rehearsals and performances in selected locations across Galway and Roscommon for young people. Open to all young people who are interested in all dance styles, with a particular focus on removing barriers and ensuring access for children and young people in IPAS. This partnership programme is developed through the GRETB Creative Youth Partnership and Galway Dance. With engagement and outreach supports from Galway City Partnership, Galway Community College, local community youth organisations, Galway City Council, Roscommon Family Resource Centres and Children Youth Services Board.
This project was developed with the GRETB Creative Youth Partnership and Galway Dance supported by the Department of Education and Youth, and Creative Ireland as part of the Creative Youth Plan, this work ensures every young person, no matter their background, has access to creativity.
This new Creative Youth DAR is designed for the lead artist to plan out their year working with the designated community and to have the artist in direct running of the programme with their chosen centre(s). Applications can be joint between two or more artists.
Creative Youth Dance Artist in Residence are youth-led dance groups that facilitate dance sessions in Galway City, Clifden, Kinvara and Ballaghaderreen for young people. Open to all youth interested in various dance styles, the project focuses on inclusion, creativity, and community building for new arrivals. This partnership programme is developed with the GRETB Local Creative Youth Partnership, delivered by Galway Dance, and supported by multiple community partners. Youth-led dancing promotes confidence, self-expression, and social connection through movement and music, especially for seldom heard and marginalised youth
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Linda Schirmer
Partners: IPAS Centre Clifden, Town Hall Clifden & Scoil Mhuire Clifden.
Linda Schirmer is a dance artist, Laban practitioner, and dance facilitator based in the West of Ireland. She trained at the Leipzig State Ballet School and holds an M.A. in Theatre. Her practice centres on site-specific choreography rooted in land, ecology, and folklore. Her work has been presented at IMMA, Galway Arts Centre, and Interface, among others. Recent awards include Dance Commission in 2023 and Dance Artist in Residence 24/25. Her award-winning film Carrying Wood has screened internationally. She also facilitates inclusive, land-based dance projects across community and educational contexts.
Melanin Tee
Partners: Galway Community College
Melanin Tee is a Galway-based dancer, choreographer, and creative facilitator. She is the founder of NoRules JustRhythm, a dance platform focused on building confidence, connection, and community through movement. Her work blends urban styles with rhythm training, helping dancers move beyond choreography and develop a deeper connection to music.
Alongside running her own classes and programmes, Melanin works with young people through her role at GCC, creating inclusive spaces for self-expression and growth. Her teaching style is rooted in energy, authenticity, and empowerment, encouraging dancers of all levels to explore their individuality and feel confident in their bodies.
Rachel Sheil
Partners: Galway Community College, Music Generation
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.
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 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.
Bernadette Divilly
Partners: Kinvara For All, Merriman Centre, Galway One World
I am an established contemporary dance artist and dance psychotherapist. The essence of my work is responsive to the continuous present, nourished and informed by my cultural heritage. This has informed my choreography and compositional dance aesthetic. I am experienced at working across our cultural diversities and intergenerationally.
I am currently recipient of the Arts Council Arts Participation Bursary Award, with focus on climate response, working with the elementary body. I have been DAR dance artist in residence with Áras Éanna Arts Centre since 2022, researching and developing work in the Gaeltacht community of Inis Oírr, based on new ideas centred on landscape, language and the body.
My ongoing research and development recently consolidated in the exhibition Síreacht agus Sult, an invitation to know one’s own longings and experiences of satisfaction, embodying one’s own ancestral influences in terms of landscape, language and relationship to place.
This project was developed with the GRETB Creative Youth Partnership and Galway Dance supported by the Department of Education and Youth and Creative Ireland as part of the Creative Youth Plan.
