Uillinn Dance Season 2026: Spring
13 March to 30 April 2026

Welcome to the inaugural Spring Uillinn Dance Season

It’s time to take part…get up and move this spring at Uillinn

Building on eight years of autumn dance presentations, Uillinn is launching a fresh new seasonal platform which invites people to step inside the creative process of dance. Through open rehearsals, short work-in-process performance sharing’s and workshops, audiences can witness and experience artists’ research and development, whether you’re new to dance or eager to deepen your understanding.

Uillinn Dance Season is part of Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s growing and ambitious contemporary dance programme. It creates opportunities for dance research, workshops, platforms for performance and community projects both onsite at Uillinn and out and about in West Cork.

This new spring season celebrates dance as a living, evolving art form—inviting everyone to discover, take part, and be inspired.

PROGRAMME 13 March to 30 April, 2026 at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre

Booking for all Events here: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/uillinn-dance-season-2026-spring-4821138

Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín

Country OK (Community engaged project) I Skibbereen Town Hall I Sat 28 Mar & Sun 29 Mar, 7pm to 9pm I 120mins (45min Show/15min interval/60min Dance Party) I €5/€7 booking HERE

Invoking the spirit of dance halls, the Country OK dance event is a rollicking celebration of live performance, live music and dancing that invites you to let loose and join in!

Featuring an inter-generational dance cast from communities across West Cork, joined by professional dancers and live music by members of The Tan Jackets with Robbie Barron, Country OK will have you foot-tapping and hip-twisting to the heart-wrenching songs of country music. Following the performance, the audience is invited to join the dance party and let loose to a live country music band playing tunes inspired by the likes of Hank Williams and Willie Nelson!

“amazing show last night, it was a pleasure to bring my parents, we all loved it”

The Town Hall is wheelchair accessible. Earplugs provided for those who might be noise sensitive.

Country OK is created by Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín, commissioned by Cork Midsummer Festival, and funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Cumas Ceantar Uíbh Ráthaigh, Dance Limerick, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Tipperary Dance and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. It is upported by Dance Cork Firkin Crane and Cork County Council.

Find out more about COUNTRY OK

Libby Halliday    

Introduction to hand balancing – Workshop I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Fri 13 Mar, 5:00pm to 6:30pm I €5/€7 I Booking HERE

Playfully explore, with balance artist Libby Halliday, the technique of hand balancing and how it can be incorporated into other movement practices. Drawing from her own practice and residency investigations, Libby will share skills and her own practice of imagining the body as something else – living but not quite human.

After a comprehensive warm up to prepare the body, participants will slowly begin inverting, making shapes low to the ground, working up towards the full handstand while discovering ways to move through the space in-between.

No previous hand balancing experience is necessary. The workshop is directed towards movement practitioners and enthusiasts, dancers, yogis, and people from all walks of life with a desire to introduce the body to something new. For adults and youth people aged 14+

Please wear comfortable, stretchy clothes.

Find out more about Libby’s RESIDENCY

Helga Deasy

Native Trees – Work-in-process performance sharing I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Sat 4 Apr, 3:00pm I 40mins including discussion I free entry I Booking HERE

Through deep, active and engaged reciprocity between the human body and the natural world, Helga investigates native Irish trees and the Ogham Calendar. In this sharing of work developed over several months in residency at Uillinn, Helga has been exploring the interrelationship between sensory perceptions, somatic experiences and imagination arising from the natural landscape in a co-creative process with nature. In the face of the climate emergency, the artist investigates how a practice of dance and embodied awareness can create new ways of knowing and bring about perceptual transformation in how we relate to and connect with nature.

The sharing will include the presentation of film footage and a short live performance developed in collaboration with dancer Kanako Haru, film maker Eoin Ó hAnnracháin and composer/musician Justin Grounds.

Find out more about Helga’s RESIDENCY

​Yves Lorrhan Silva Santos   

The Boxes  – Open rehearsal I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Thurs 9 Apr, 11:00am to 12:00pm I Drop in for 10 to 20 minutes anytime during this hour I Free entry I Booking HERE

Boxes and Bodies – Workshop I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Sat 11 Apr, 12.30am I 1.5hours I Free entry I Booking HERE, no experience necessary

An embodied exploration of how we carry structures, limits, and identities within us. Through movement and object work, participants will reflect on the boxes that shape their behaviours, their sense of safety, and their freedom to express.

Guided by physical exploration and improvisation, this workshop invites participants to engage with the body as a site of awareness and transformation. Using the box as both a physical and symbolic object, we will investigate how social expectations, internalised patterns, and unseen boundaries influence the way we move, relate, and perceive ourselves.

Participants will be encouraged to question these structures and to explore new possibilities of movement, expression, and presence. The workshop creates a supportive and reflective space where curiosity, sensitivity, and personal interpretation are central, allowing each individual to navigate their own relationship with control, vulnerability, and freedom.

The Boxes – Work-in-process performance sharing I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Thu 16 Apr, 5:00pm I 40mins including discussion I €5/€7 I Booking HERE

The Boxes is an ongoing performance project that explores the relationship between the body, social structures, and identity. This work-in-progress invites audiences into an early stage of creation, where movement, objects, and imagery are used to investigate themes of limitation, protection, and belonging.

Through the symbolic use of “boxes,” the piece reflects on the visible and invisible boundaries we carry — shaped by societal expectations, stereotypes, and personal histories. The body becomes a space of tension and transformation, navigating between restriction and freedom, control and expression.

This sharing offers a glimpse into the creative process, opening space for reflection, dialogue, and exchange with the audience as the work continues to evolve.

The Boxes is a dance and performance research project that explores how masculinity and patriarchy shape bodies, emotions, and relationships. Through contemporary dance, storytelling, rhythm, and embodied practices, Yves investigates the “boxes” men are taught to fit into — strength, control, silence — and what happens when these structures are questioned, broken, or reimagined.

Join Yves for a series of open rehearsals, informal sharing’s and movement-based workshops designed to welcome everyone—no dance experience is needed. Each session invites participants to reflect on identity, gender expectations and embodiment in a supportive and creative environment. These encounters with the community will directly shape the artistic process, deepening the connection between the work, the artist and the people of West Cork.

Find out more about Yves’ RESIDENCY

Aoibhinn O’Dea

Foot of the Lungs – Inclusive improvisational workshop I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Thurs 23 Apr, 5:00pm I 1hr I free entry I Booking HERE

Foot of the Lungs – Work-in-process performance sharing I UCC and Bollinger Family Space at Uillinn I Thurs 30 Apr, 5:00pm I 40mins including discussion I €5/€7 I Booking HERE

Foot of the Lungs reflects an ongoing interest in the dialogical relationship between sound and movement using breath, harmonica, field recordings and lung-like objects to generate choreography and live sonic material. For her residency at Uillinn, Aoibhinn, expands her solo practice through collaboration with dance artists Grace Cuny and Roberta Ceginskaite, and musicians Seamas Hyland and Robbie Reilly.

The workshop and  sharing invites dialogue, feedback and exchange around the themes of communication and connection.

Find out more about Aoibhinn’s RESIDENCY

Image credits Top Row: Country OK Sarah Ryan and dancers by Zé Bateira; Helga Deasy by Enrique Carnicero; Yves Lorrhan Silva Santos, The Boxes

Lower Row: Libby Halliday by Kate Bean; Aoibhinn O’Dea by Ger Holland

Uillinn Dance Programme is made possible with generous support from the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.