DDF News — 15 May 2022
Welcome to the DDF Artist Pass recipients
DDF is thrilled to award 4 emerging dance artists an Artist Pass to the 2022 Edition, including access to performances, opportunities to engage with Festival artists and a chance to develop their creative careers.
Attending a wide selection of performances and engaging with diverse artists are invaluable experience while developing a career in dance. We understand that access to these opportunities can be challenging for young artists so DDF has created the Artist Pass - a tailored programme that invites artists to attend a curated series of events and networking moments.
Following an open call, we are delighted to congratulate the following dance artists, and look forward to sharing the 2022 Edition with them this May!
Sarah Ryan
Sarah Ryan is a stable and multifaceted freelance dance artist in the dance sector in Ireland. She has worked with a wide range of choreographers, directors and companies from different artistic backgrounds; these include Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Philip Connaughton, Liz Roche, Iseli-Chiodi Company, Áine Stapleton, Laura Murphy, Opera Theatre Company, Ponydance, John O’Brien, Jessie Keenan, Croí Glan, Mary Wycherley, Cie Willie Dorner, amongst others. These works have been included in the Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Cork Midsummers Festival, as well as national and international tours.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to engage so widely with such a rich and dynamic programme. I am mostly looking forward to taking part in intensives with artists and seeing their work later that evening. As a dance artist, a glimpse of this progression of artistic practice/progress to staged work is deeply beneficial as a source of reflection and inspiration. I am very grateful to have been awarded this Artist Pass.”
Favour Odusola
Favour Odusola (Proud African King) is a Nigerian-Irish multidisciplinary artist based in Dublin, Ireland and a professional member of Dance Ireland and Create Ireland. He has worked across several contexts from traditional dance and percussion to commercial work and contemporary theatre for over 15 years in Europe (Ireland and London), Africa (Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria), and UAE (Dubai).
“I am looking forward to the rich diverse performances that will be showcased and can’t wait! This experience will be life changing!”
Sarah Saxon
Sarah Saxon is an emerging dancer, choreographer and dance-filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and completed her BFA (Honours) in 2021. She has developed a site-conditioned dance practice inspired by the reciprocity between humans and the natural world. In 2021 she created Inhabitance, a series of five screen dances, from this practice. Saxon has performed in works by Anouk van Dijk (Surge), Linda Sastradipradja (Sight Unseen), Prue Lang (MTAFU), and Caroline Ellis (Social Bodies). She presented her most recent development, Inhabitance VI, at Out of Bounds (facilitated by Lucy Guerin Inc. and Temperance Hall) in April, and co-produced Student Works 2020 and Grad Fest at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2020. She is a recipient of the Dr Philip Law Travel Scholarship (2020), the Grace Marion Wilson Trust Scholarship (2020) and the Melbourne Global Scholars Award (2019).
Emma Foley
Emma was born and raised in Cork City, Ireland. She attended a small school in which dancing was seen as a hobby, and not a career choice. With a passion for being on stage and entertaining, Emma grew up performing jazz, musical theatre, lyrical as well as acting. Having made the move to Limerick to begin her studies in the Irish World Academy. Since then, I have had the chance to learn Aerial Dance, Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Hip-hop and even pick up piano along the way. This is a little insight to the adventure I am undertaking.