Catherine Young Dance | About - Catherine Young Dance

Dance saves lives.

The inspiration for Catherine Young’s work came twenty years ago when she was enrolled in an Afro-Haitian dance class taught by Valerie Watson. Ms Watson was a power-house African American woman in her 60s, who could out-dance everyone. Dance for her was more than movement, more than something pleasing to look at. It was a force to be reckoned with, a tool for change, for transformation and transcendence. Dance was for saving lives.

ABOUT CYD

Our Story

Catherine Young Dance was established in 2014, after Catherine returned to Ireland from training and working as a dance artist in San Francisco and New York. She carried with her the extraordinary influences of her dance teachers who were mostly African-American. They infused in her a deep understanding of dance anthropology and dance history as well as certainty about the essentiality of dance and its power to make change. They also gifted her with a love of African dance which is at the bedrock of her practice.

Once back in Ireland, Catherine sought to embrace these fundamentals in developing her company and work. With her understanding of African dance, Catherine knew how dance can function in society, not on the periphery but at the heart of it. Catherine Young Dance was set up to make dance matter at every level of society, a core part of who we are and of what we do as humans.

Five words jotted down in a notebook guided Catherine’s thinking then as now: human, raw, visceral, truthful, transcendent.

The company ethos holds a deep commitment to building community, to social justice and to working through dance to communicate vital stories and ideas, especially from those on the margins. We believe in bringing people of all cultures together through dance and in finding our common points of connection. This is more important than ever in Ireland and elsewhere as countries seek to welcome and integrate people who are migrating through desire or circumstance.

Since 2014, Catherine and the company have built up a significant body of work and influence as artists and activists, moving hearts and minds towards our common humanity through dance. We have toured nationally and internationally with a major highlight being an invitation to open the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Palestine in 2017 with Welcoming the Stranger – a work Catherine had made in Ireland during the height of the refugee crisis. Bringing this show to Palestine and being there had a powerful impact on the company. It propelled subsequent work looking at human rights, particularly considering those in Direct Provision (State of Exception) and in Palestine (Floating on a Dead Sea).

Over the coming years, we will continue to be inspired by what is going on in the world and by the communities we engage with. We will respond to the beauty, the wonder, the questions and challenges we face today as humans. We look forward to making more work that has the power to make change: human, raw, visceral, truthful, transcendent.

One dance at a time

We have seen dance reach people — both artists and audiences — connecting with their lives and experiences in ways that were revelatory, empowering and even a salvation. That is why transformation is one of our values.

As we set out to change the world one dance at a time, we also uphold the values of generosity, courage and communion. We value what we have and we give back. We are prepared to be vulnerable so that we can be truthful. We believe in bringing people together to share and celebrate our common humanity.

Catherine Young

Catherine Young is choreographer, dancer and passionate advocate of human rights and equality. She has been at the forefront of dance in Ireland since returning home from America. Her time in San Francisco gave her insight into working in a multi-cultural world and an appreciation of the beauty and power of each culture.

African dance is a core part of Catherine’s practice. She travels regularly to West Africa to continue her training there as well as with Movement Research NYC. Catherine is a certified Yoga teacher and her yoga practice deeply informs how she works. In addition, she is a student of Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn. His teachings on inter-being and that we are all one are both a personal guide for Catherine and fundamental to her dance practice.

In living these values, Catherine plays her part in supporting the professional development of dance artists in Ireland. She established Make & Move, a development programme for emerging choreographers and frequently works as a mentor. She has an on-ongoing relationship with Dance Limerick with whom she co-curates the What Next dance festival for emerging artists and leads the creative exchange programme for participating artists.

In 2016, Catherine developed The Welcoming Project, a community dance initiative that brings people from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences together to promote integration and social cohesion. Since the first project in Kerry, the initiative has enjoyed huge success locally within the communities with whom it works, nationally and internationally.

Catherine is a Dance Ireland Associate Artist and one of Dance Ireland’s 2020 Hatch Artists. She is also UK Bench Fellow and is currently artist in residence at Backstage Theatre as well as dancer in residence with Kerry County Council. She is also an associate artist at Siamsa Tíre (The National Folk Theatre of Ireland). Catherine holds an M.A. In Contemporary Dance Performance from the University of Limerick, where she is also a Guest Lecturer.

Our People

We strive to work with kind, generous and courageous collaborators who form the backbone of how we work and what we do. Live music is a defining feature of our work. It is a vital part of the connection we forge with audiences, expanding and deepening their experience of dance and we have worked with many wonderful musicians over the years in addition to dancers.

We acknowledge and hugely value the contribution of our long-time collaborator, music director, Martin Schärer, to the evolution of the company and our work. More recently, dramaturg Hanna Slattne has also brought her unique talents and sensibility to inform and advance what we do.

Hanna Slättne is a dance and theatredramaturg based in UK/Ireland. She has been collaborating with Catherine Young since 2018 on State of Exception, Floating on a Dead Sea and A Call To You and is company dramaturg working on upcoming productions and projects. Recent works with other dance companies include: Off The Rails/Eileen McClory, Helen Hall Dance, Ali Clarke and Roisin Whelan Dance. Her professional work also include, theatre, new writing and XR dramaturgy with a specialism in immersive audio, working recently with Brú Theatre, Guna Nua Theatre Company, RSC Stratford and Anna Newell Theatre Adventures. She is a teacher of dramaturgy, playwriting, and interdisciplinary practice at Goldsmiths University and ATU Sligo’s MA programmes. In 2016 she received the Kenneth Tynan Award for Excellence in Dramaturgy and in 2017 an Elliot Hayes Award special commendation. She is a co-founder of the Dramaturgs’ Network Ireland. www.hannaslattne.com

Martin Schärer, originally from Switzerland has been living in Ireland since 2003. He began collaborating with Catherine in 2006. Percussionist, performer and composer, he has been music director for CYD since 2016 composing scores for Young’s works: A Call To You, Floating On A Dead Sea, State Of Exception, Céilí Afro Dabke, It Takes a Village and Welcoming the Stranger.

Here are some of the additional wonderful collaborators we have worked with from 2014 to the present day.

Dance saves lives.

CUT

Our Story

Moving Hearts & Minds

One dance at a time

Catherine Young

Our People