Artist Pass 2026

Since 2019, the DDF Artist Pass has created space for emerging and early career dance artists to fully immerse themselves in the Festival programme while connecting with local and international practitioners. It is designed to foster curiosity, conversation and creative exchange.

Experiencing a wide spectrum of work and building relationships with peers is essential to sustaining and evolving an artistic practice. The Artist Pass provides access to a curated programme of events across the 2026 Festival, including leading Irish and international productions, masterclasses, roundtable discussions, peer networking opportunities and Festival gatherings. The initiative aims to support artists in encountering work they might not otherwise experience and in forming lasting connections with fellow artists and colleagues.

In 2026, DDF once again teams up with regional dance partners across the country to offer eight artists a valuable opportunity to gather inspiration, deepen their practice and expand their professional networks within a vibrant festival context.

Regional Partners:

Dance Ireland
Dance Limerick
Dance Cork Firkin Crane
Galway Dance
Theatre and Dance NI
Tipperary Dance

2026 Artist Pass Recipients

Grace Cuny (nominated by Dance Limerick)
Grace Cuny is a dance artist from Fort Worth, Texas. She began her training in ballet under the directions of Alexander Vetrov, Paul Mejia and Maria Balogh. She danced a season with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Washington, D.C. before receiving her B.F.A. in Dance Performance from SMU in Dallas. Upon graduating, she moved to NYC where she worked as a freelance dancer with groups like Linked Dance Theatre and Reliant Tom. Her loves for live performance and improvisation encouraged her to explore standup and improv comedy, forming an improv troupe with members of an Upright Citizens Brigade class. In 2021, Grace moved to Ireland to pursue her M.A. in Contemporary Dance from the Irish World Academy. Since then she has toured with Liz Roche Company in her production of Yes & Yes. Today Grace enjoys incorporating humour into her work and finds the rules of comedic improv and its general atmosphere of non-judgemental, active choices to be incredibly helpful in the choreographic process. Her curiosities include: dance as a vehicle for transformation, the tragicomic space, and the many unsung, liminal (and at times most magical) stages of life. She is excited by the idea of using personal roadblocks as raw creative material in upcoming projects.


Arianna Guasso (nominated by Tipperary Dance)
Born in Italy, Arianna Guasso is a multidisciplinary dance artist currently based in Limerick, Ireland. With over 20 years of training, she has developed a strong and versatile technical foundation across multiple movement languages. Arianna obtained a diploma in Dance Education at the International Dance Academy, where she refined her technical precision and performance skills, before earning a BA in Contemporary Dance from the University of Limerick. Her practice is rooted in contemporary dance, which remains her primary focus and artistic interest. Alongside this, she has trained extensively in ballet, jazz, tap, flamenco and hip hop – experiences that continue to influence and fuel her dynamic range, musicality and adaptability as a performer and creator. Arianna’s artistic approach is shaped by both structured technique and exploratory movement research. She is interested in developing work that investigates physicality, emotional texture and the relationship between oppositional movements within the body. Her cross-cultural experience – growing up in Italy and continuing her development in multiple countries across the world – has broadened her artistic perspective and deepened her engagement with diverse creative environments.

Laura Lundy (nominated by Galway Dance)
Laura Lundy is a traditional dance artist based in Sligo, the North West of Ireland. Laura started dance at a young age and competed at a high level. After completing her BA in Irish Music & Dance at the University of Limerick, she transitioned from competitive dance to a world of dance performance. She then moved to The Netherlands where she received her TCRG qualifications allowing her to teach at the now Kilkenny Lundy School of Irish dance. Whilst based in The Netherlands, Laura choreographed for, and performed at many events such as the International Arts Festival, The Dutch Embassy and The National Dutch Ballet. In 2021, she returned to UL to complete her Master’s degree in Irish Traditional Dance Performance. This fostered a keen interest in her creative path, leading to more individual work. Through residencies, workshops and creative projects, she continues to work on her own practise, constantly challenging the idea of Irish dance, where it can lead her and how she can explore and develop what this traditional dance form is to her now. Laura regularly works with Fontanella Dance, Ériu Dance and most recently with Catherine Young Dance. She is a tutor at the University of Limerick and continues to teach in The Netherlands and across Europe.

Molly Kelly (nominated by Firkin Crane Cork)
Molly is a dance artist working across performance and facilitation. She is a recent graduate of the MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, where her research explored embodiment, collaboration, and the intersections of movement, sound and visual art. Her practice is rooted in inclusive and community dance. She has undertaken training in community and inclusive dance with Dance Limerick, Firkin Crane (Cork), DuDance NI, and Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company (Derry), and has co-facilitated workshops with children, young people and intergenerational groups. Collaboration is central to her approach, and she is committed to contributing to dance spaces that prioritise accessibility, care and shared experience. Recent projects include collaborations with an Inclusive Dance Collective led by Katy Hewison (Dance Limerick), a performer–facilitator role in Clash, a youth dance project with DuDance NI, the experimental dance film Sound Escaping, and a six-artist film project with MAAH Space. She was a dancer and assistant on Country OK at Cork Midsummer Festival with Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín, and continues to tour with the work.

Siún O’Kane (nominated by Dance Ireland)
Siún O’Kane is a Dublin-based dancer and multidisciplinary artist. She earned a scholarship to train abroad at the Centre Performing Arts College in Kent and the Musical Theatre Academy in London. In 2024, she founded the Hidden & Forbidden Theatre Collective, a Dublin-based company of creatives who wish to create experimental work. Her latest piece WHITE-KNUCKLED – a physical theatre show – was selected for the Scene+Heard Festival 2025 and supported by the Axis Theatre and Dublin Fringe Festival. Throughout her career, Siún has performed across a wide range of platforms, from traditional theatre to contemporary installations. Recent highlights include her appearances at the Bram Stoker Festival (Slaughterhouse x HoneyPot, 2024) and the Dance2Connect Festival’s New Movement Showcase (Human Collective, 2025 & 2024). She has also made her mark in music videos as the Principal Dancer in Mermaid by The Ceol (2022) and in film, with notable roles in The Nan Movie (Warner Bros, 2022). Siún’s artistic journey has been supported through residencies and bursaries, including Off Site CoisCéim (2025), Shawbrook (2025), DLR Emerging Artist Bursary (2025), Foundations to Form Intensive with Dance Ireland (2025), Dance2Connect LAB with Dance Ireland (2024 & 2025), Dance Ireland Artist Residency (2022), Masterclass Residency at the Wexford Opera House and the Artist and Symposium Bursary, Tipperary Dance International Festival (2021)

Emily McDonagh (nominated by Theatre Dance NI)
Emily McDonagh is a multidisciplinary artist specialising in contemporary dance, musical theatre, cabaret and circus. A pint-sized pocket rocket she has most recently been seen as a featured dancer in HBOs A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and The Sun in Joshua Burnsides Teeth of Time tour. You can find her regularly performing at Belfast's own Cabaret Supperclub. She has also had the pleasure of being a member of multi-award-winning company Yuck Circus and other Collectives such as Currach Circus, Think Circus and POKE Theatre.

Maíre Morrison (nominated by Theatre Dance NI)
Maíre Morrison is a dance artist based in Derry. She graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in Professional Dance from Dance City in 2023. Since graduating, she has been working as a freelance dance artist across the country as a performer, facilitator and emerging choreographer. As a dancer, she has worked with companies including Maiden Voyage Dance, Fidget Feet Aerial Dance, the National Gallery, and the Playhouse. Alongside performance work, Maíre facilitates dance classes and workshops within community settings in Derry, as well as having delivered engagement workshops for companies such as Fidget Feet Aerial Dance and Luail – Ireland's National Dance Company. Over the past year, Maíre has begun developing her choreographic voice. She was selected to take part in Maiden Voyage Dance’s MatchMake programme, which supported the creation of her new site-specific dance duet, Encounters, that premiered in March 2026. She has recently been selected for An Grianán Theatre's Acorns Programme, through which she will continue developing her choreographic and creative practice.

Sindri Runudde (nominated by Dublin Dance Festival with support from Visiting Artist Programme)
Sindri Runudde is a Swedish dancer and choreographer born and raised in the north of Sweden. Sindri trained in dance, sound art and contemporary circus at the Stockholm University of the Arts and internationally. Their artistic practice weaves together dance, expanded choreography, sound and tactile arts, and spoken word in imaginative, humorous, and playful ways that transcend traditional forms. Their works – including The Fishingdance & Other Cosmic Confessions, Delighthouse & the Dark Room, Cosmetic Demons: A Choreographic Salon, A Sensoral Lecture, and Blind Boi Diaries directed by Juli Apponen – explore feminist, queer, and crip perspectives at the intersection of disability politics and lived experience. In 2024, Sindri was awarded the Birgit Cullberg Scholarship from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and is currently touring with PAPPA, made in collaboration with Halla Ólafsdóttir, and the sound archiving project Rehearsal Radio: Outside Ear.

Bobbi Byrne (nominated by Dublin Dance Festival)
Bobbi Byrne is a disabled, transfeminine dance artist based in Dublin, Ireland. She was one of the first professional disabled dancers in the country and was a core member of Counterbalance, Ireland's first Inclusive dance company, for over a decade. She has worked closely with the SMARTlab inclusive design laboratory, co-devising and touring in various award-winning shows at events such as the Special Olympics and World summit of Innovation. She has spent several years working in Madrid with Dan Zass inclusive dance company and the Meet Share Dance association. She is currently an associate artist with Croí Glan. Bobbi's impairment, a unilateral congenital below elbow difference (UCBED), has made her particularly interested in asymmetry and imbalance. Her practice is based as much in martial arts as traditional dance, but incorporates a strong grounding in Laban fundamentals, release technique and early postmodern dance.