ARTISTS

Ruaidhri Maguire is a choreographer and classical dancer from County Derry and County Cavan. He began his training at home with Roberta McCormick and Laura Walker, before completing his professional training at the Central School of Ballet, London. 

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His choreography has been performed on stages across Ireland, the UK, Canada, Poland and Japan. Ruaidhri's choreographic practice has received support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Galway Dance Project, Dance Ireland and Theatre and Dance NI INVEST.

As a dancer, Ruaidhri is currently dancing with the National Ballet of Ireland after 6 seasons with the Baltic Opera Ballet (Poland) where he was the youngest male principal dancer and seasons with Ballet Victoria (Canada) and Milwaukee Ballet II (USA). Highlighted roles include 'Albrecht' in Giselle, 'Espada' in Don Quixote and 'Lysander' in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Learn more about Ruaidhri here.

Amelia is a composer from County Down who creates music for dance, stage and concert hall. Her creative practice is centred on navigating potent political issues, juxtaposing folk and classical influences in her approach.  Her music has been described as "inherent elusiveness.. ..beautifully captured" (Het Parool).

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Amelia’s work has been performed across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands by performers including the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Crash Ensemble, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, the Royal Air Force and at Opera Holland Park, Kings Place, the South Bank Centre and Wigmore Hall. 

Amelia was the 2022-23 Mendelssohn Scholar for her PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music. She has received support from the PRS Foundation, ACNI, Vaughan Williams Foundation and Hinrichsen Foundation. 

Hailed by Bernard Haitink for the “infectious joy in his conducting and music making”, Jonathan is in demand as both performer and music educator. He has conducted extensively internationally with recent collaborations as diverse as the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Chineke! Youth Orchestra (London) and the Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania).

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As founder and Music Director of the Cardiff Sinfonietta, Jonathan Mann oversaw the orchestra’s expansion over a 15 year period. The orchestra broadcast for the BBC and S4C and worked with soloists including Nicola Benedetti, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Grosvenor, Sunwook Kim and Dennis O’Neill. At the start of 2020 the Cardiff Sinfonietta merged with the Welsh Sinfonia to form Ensemble Cambrica, an exciting new orchestra aimed at reaching the community in innovative ways.

Born in Portadown, Leigh trained at The Royal Ballet School, performing in Rudi van Dantzig's Four Last Songs in Toronto and Stuttgart before graduating in 2006. He began his career with Scottish Ballet dancing works by Ashley Page, Forsythe and Trisha Brown and Pastor and works by Richard Wherlock with New English Contemporary Ballet, later joining Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada and guesting with Cork City Ballet. Later, with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Leigh performed in works by Stijn Celis, Stephan Thoss, The Snake in Didy Veldman's Petit Prince, Jiří Kylián's [Kaguyahime] and The Prince in Mats Ek's Sleeping Beauty. Later touring With Matthew Bourne's New Adventures in the new Swan Lake, Leigh left to Join The Royal Ballet Fehervar dancing works by Ekman and Lucas Timulak before joining his current position as Soloist in Ballett Theatre Nordhausen in Germany.

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Awards include Royal Ballet School Achievement Award (2005 & 2006), Lynne Seymour Award for Most Expressive Dancer (2004), The NJL Choreographic Development Award (2005) and The Ulster Tatler Arts Personality of the Year Award (2009 & 2010).

Danila is an Italian Scots ballet dancer currently working with Baltic Opera Ballet of Gdansk since 2020. Recent soloist roles include the title role in Cinderella, and 'Mercedes' in Don Quixote.

She trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During her graduate year, Danila toured with Scottish Ballet was selected as one of the top 5 ballet finalists in the televised national dance competition BBC Young Dancer 2019. Following her graduation, Danila has worked with Ballet Cymru, dancing the role of Juliet in an international tour of Romeo and Juliet.

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Danila's work as a choreographer includes first place in the Annual Choreographic Competition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, works for Ballet Cymru’s Pre-Professional programme, pieces for the Baltic Opera Ballet's Young Choreographers Evenings and a new work for the International Ballet Competition.

Conan is a Filmmaker, Theatre-maker and Video Artist. His work has been exhibited in cinemas, galleries, festivals, national theatres, broadcast on national television and held in the Arts Council Northern Ireland collection. Conan was nominated for the Best Video Design at The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2022; he received the Visual Artists Ireland Experience Award 2022 with Vivienne Dick; and was British Council Filmmaker-in-Residence at Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris in 2022. Theatre credits include: I Fall Down (The Everyman Cork), Abomination: A DUP Opera (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre London / Theatre Royal, Brighton Festival), The Patient Gloria (The Everyman Cork / Black Box Galway / Project Arts Centre Dublin / St. Ann’s Warehouse NYC), babyGROOVE (Gate Theatre / Irish Tour). Conan received an Arts Council Ireland Theatre Bursary 2022 to expand his practice as a Theatre Director & Designer. His recent sell-out production Waiting For The Offo at The New Theatre Dublin marked his 50th design credit and 1st directing credit for the stage.

High Point Youth Ballet’s mission is to raise awareness of the need for more intensive pre-professional ballet training in Northern Ireland, and to advocate for the creation of a performing arts school which provides dancers with intensive ballet study and classes which they can attend without compromising academic achievement. 

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Most recently, HPYB staged two special performances of Swan Lake at Theatre at the Mill in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

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Learn more about HPYB here

Niamh began dancing in Dublin with the Dunbar School of Dance and the Goode School of Dance. She then moved to the U.K. to continue her training at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. During her time there she toured the U.K. performing with Encore Dance Company and the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain.

Niamh joined Ballet Ireland in 2018 and has since performed works including The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Carmen, The Glasshouse, and Bold Moves with the company. Additionally, Niamh has worked throughout Europe with Bregenzer Festspiele, Chrysalis London, Irish National Opera, Laura Macken Dance, Sophie Adams Ballet Company, and Róisín Whelan Dance. She has danced for TV and film with RTÉ, Merlin Productions, Trinity College Dublin, and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

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Niamh is also a STOTT Pilates and Progressing Ballet Technique certified instructor.

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Clara is a County Down based Dance Artist who trained at LIPA, achieving a 1 st  class BA (Hons) Dance. She has worked extensively throughout the UK and Ireland since graduating. Recent work includes ‘Line of Life’ an interactive projection and dance piece commissioned by Maiden Voyage Dance, ‘Seen Not Heard’ a collaboration alongside Cameron Tharma and ‘The Children of Lir’, an Irish fusion piece in collaboration with Denise Catney. Clara has also performed extensively including the ‘House!’ tour with Fidget Feet, a national tour with ‘Fairytale of New York’, and as an ensemble member in

Northern Ireland Opera’s ‘La Traviata’.

Most recently, Clara founded Seen Dance Company, a new energetic dance company whose interests include tell Irish stories, old and new.

Sarah is an Irish dance artist currently based in Belfast and Berlin. She graduated from The Institute of the Arts Barcelona in 2023 with a First Class BA(Hons)Dance. During her studies she worked with choreographers such as Jason Mabana, Léa Tirabasso, Guy Nader │ Maria Campos, Clémentine Télesfort and Lisard Tranis. Sarah continued her training at DART Studios Professional Training Intensive where she recently performed in the premier of “After a while in the Exile” by Nossetssik Dance Company.

Last summer Sarah spent time at Shawbrook Dance Company Space with Róisín Whelan Dance. In 2022 she worked with Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble and Maiden Voyage Dance for a duet choreographed by Michael McEvoy. In 2022 Sarah also worked with Maiden Voyage Dance through their creative encounters initiative and during that summer she took part in the Akram Khan Summer Intensive in Belfast. Sarah has taught contemporary dance in Berlin and in Northern Ireland. Through her creative practice Sarah experiments with many different styles of dance. In particular she enjoys exploring the urban styles and how these can be incorporated into the “groove” of her contemporary practice. As an artist Sarah is interested in exploring authentic and expressive movement.​

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