Kildare Dance Summer School - COLM GALLAGHER & EBONY ROSE

These workshops focus on the celebration of the individual, feeling the dynamic within the group into dancing intuitively and fearlessly. We will work with different methods for inclusion which allow each participant to share and develop their own style of direction and movement vocabulary. By creating a safe and playful space in which to explore both Amici’s approach and aspects of Ebony’s practice, we aim to draw out individual and group potential.

Colm Gallagher

As Associate Artist in AMICI, Colm is currently teaching regular classes and workshops in Hammersmith and Kensington. Colm is also engaged with many individual students at the Universities of Kingston, Roehampton, and London School of Economics. He is also a regular teacher in the Royal Academy of Dance.

Prior to this, as a care worker in Palmerstown he developed an interest in the idea of arts-based activities to enhance an idea of their own story telling using physical theatre, music, and visual art.

As well as performing extensively nationally and internationally with AMICI Colm has worked with Frantic Assembly and Jerome Bel. Colm has been involved with the Kildare Dance Summer School since it began. He is also an Alumni of Maynooth University.

Ebony Rose Dark

Ebony Rose Dark is your all singing, all dancing, lip syncing, storytelling, miming V.I.P/ Visually Impaired Cabaret/Performance Artist. Ebony Rose Dark is known for her performances around disability, ableism, racism, and relationships within the LGBTQ+ community.

Ebony has performed nationally and international at: The Tate Modern; Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Leeds City Art Gallery; Lyric Hammersmith; Two Brewers Clapham; The Wardrobe Theatre Bristol; The Cocoa Butter Club London; Camden Fringe; Zagreb Croatia at the Cultural Centre; London Pride 2018-2024; Marlborough Pub and Theatre Brighton; Le Pop in Paris, ICA London; Southbank Centre; The Queen Elizabeth Hall; Cripping The Arts Disability Cabaret Symposium, Toronto Canada; and at The Harbour Centre with Brownton Abby.

Ebony has also performed with David Hoyle in A Camp Laff, 2019 and at The Spire Church in Brighton in David Hoyle and Friends. She has performed at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s Bar Wotever since 2012 and has become one their longest serving artists in residence. Ebony has also been part of The Permissible Beauty film gallery project at Hampton Court Palace, Welcome Collection London, and Gaze LGBTQIA Festival Dublin.

In 2023 Ebony created a new work bringing into play live audio description in cabaret dance during a Choreodrome residency. The resulting solo show Out There in Here premiered at The Place in 2024.

Ebony continues their artistic development and developing Out There in Here as well as maintaining a strong connection to one of the U.K.’s most historical LGBTQ+ venues, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Ebony is a longstanding performer with Amici Dance Theatre Company and will appear in their next production in October 2025 at The Lyric Hammersmith.

@ebony_rose_dark

Kildare Dance Summer School

Over the past two decades Kildare County Council Arts Service has established itself as an agency for dance development in Ireland through Dance Artist Residencies, certified training and professional development and the Kildare Dance Summer School. Led by the Arts Service with support from the Arts Council and the HSE, the Dance Summer School offers a wide-ranging programme that allows participants to immerse themselves in a range of approaches and methodologies to dance.

Kildare Dance Summer School 2025 offers a 3-day programme of workshops for all abilities. The programme features both familiar and new voices to the schedule curated by Kildare-based freelance dance artist and choreographer Ailish Claffey who added;

'We are delighted to welcome both familiar and new voices to this year’s programme. Colm Gallagher, a longstanding contributor to the Summer School, returns to co-facilitate with Ebony Rose Dark—an electrifying cabaret and performance artist whose work spans disability justice, queerness, and inclusive movement. Elaine Thomas and Rosie Leak return following their impactful co-facilitation last year, bringing depth, care, and embodied intelligence to their work. We’re also thrilled to include Selma Daniel and Yasmin Mello of The S.A.Y. Collective, accompanied by live music from Andre Antunes. Their presence brings a rich, improvisational and collaborative energy - grounded in sustainable practice, shared authorship, and the relational interplay of movement and sound. Their workshop is, above all, a chance for everyone to dance - a space for joyful participation and shared expression.'

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Workshops are for over 18s only.

Please contact arts@kildarecoco.ie to discuss accessibility needs. 

The venue is Middle/Scripture, ground floor of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth University, towards the back of the campus. 

The Campus is approximately five minutes’ walk from Maynooth train station. Maynooth is also served by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Expressway bus routes. Map of Parking Available on Campus

Please bring your own water, snacks and lunch.

Participants usually dance in their bare feet.

A photographer will be documenting this workshop on behalf of Kildare Arts Service at some point during the day. 

Tickets are limited so please let us know if you cannot attend. There will be a waiting list system in place. 

For further information please contact arts@kildarecoco.ie or phone Eláine at 087 2399212