The Monthly discusses the new all island dance company, Luail, with Nicola Curry from Maiden Voyage Dance – Part 3 – Gearing up for 2025

Where to now?

Following this period of set-up and an enormous amount of behind the scenes working to establish the company and recruit a staff team, Luail are looking forward to an exciting year ahead in 2025.

The full-time company of dancers, selected after a 3-stage audition process in Dublin and Brussels, have begun working this month in Dublin. Focus for them over the coming months will be in the dance studio on the creation of the company’s debut triple bill Chora and indeed on two further works to be presented later in 2025.

Full details on Luail’s 2025 touring programme will be announced in the new year. The large-scale all-island engagement project To This I Belong will see the final three projects come to fruition in Wexford with Lucia Kickham, in Leitrim with Edwina Guckian and across the nine counties of Ulster with Dance Corner by Dylan Quinn in 2025 with Tobi Omotesu’s already concluded in Limerick earlier in 2024.

For Maiden Voyage we will be focusing on partnership projects outlined earlier alongside other discreet initiatives to connect NI artists to opportunities that a full-time large-scale company like Luail can provide and development opportunities for more sustainable careers in dance.

There are however many challenges for dance here to overcome not least decades of significant underinvestment in Northern Ireland. Maiden Voyage looks forward to working with our stakeholders and sector colleagues to encourage urgent increased, new and additional funding investment in dance artists and companies to create and tour dance, for dance participation and to open pathways for young people to access dance training in all dance forms in Northern Ireland.

Photo courtesy of Nicola Curry