MOMENTUM June Showcase

Momentum will showcase some of the dance talent in Galway city and county and the west coast. The showcase begins at 7pm and will run until approximately 8:30pm, including a Q&A session after the performances.

This event is for anyone who would like to find out a bit more about dance in Galway. Featuring different genres of dance styles and practices, this event promises to be a fun and accessible way to enjoy dance.

Momentum will feature three separate, short showings of dance work

The Space Between

A work-in-progress showing by Genevieve Ryan and Kasia Voetter

After nearly a decade apart, two dancers reunite in a shared space shaped by time, memory, and change. the space between revisits fragments of past choreographies while honoring the quiet transformations that life has etched into their bodies and perspectives. Movement becomes reflection—a way to listen, to reckon, to reconnect. What has shifted? What remains? This piece dwells in the in-between: the distance, the closeness, the unspoken. Not a return, but a reimagining—an unfolding of what now moves between them.

Choreographed and performed by:

In 2009/10 Kasia Voetter finished her MA degree in Contemporary Dance and Performance at Irish World Academy of Music and Dance,in University of Limerick. Earlier on she completed her MA studies in Physical Education in 2001 in Poland. In 2003 she moved to Ireland where she continued her ballet, jazz and modern dance training in Corrib Dance Academy in Galway. Since that time she joined Contact Improvisation workshop group based in Galway and in 2008/09 finished International Irish Dance Teachers Association qualification in jazz,modern,theatrecraft and freestyle. Currently she is cooperating with several companies which are involved in drama and dance.

Genevieve Ryan is a Galway-based dancer, choreographer, and director with over two decades of dance experience. She holds an MA in Dance from the University of Limerick and multiple distinctions from the IDTA. Genevieve is the founder and director of Genevieve Ryan Dance Academy, serving 400+ students weekly. She has led numerous residencies and choreographic projects through Galway Dance Project and Galway City Council, with a focus on community engagement and youth arts. Her creative work explores movement foundations like breath, rhythm, and pulse, with themes centered on identity, imagination, and mental health.

Waldeinsamkeit

Waldeinsamkeit (Work in Progress) a German word for the feeling of being alone in the forest — is a movement exploration shaped by the solitude and quiet discomfort of a monoculture landscape. Developed in response to the Sitka Spruce plantations around Interface, this early-stage dance piece reflects on forests where biodiversity has been replaced by uniformity, and stillness is broken only by the occasional sheep. My practice explores the genius loci — the spirit of a place — and how its presence, or absence, influences our relationship with landscapes that have been heavily altered by human activity.

Choreographed and performed by:

Linda Schirmer is a dance artist and facilitator based in the West of Ireland. Trained at the Leipzig State Ballet School, her background includes Dance Theatre and Laban studies, and she holds an M.A. in Theatre. Her dance work has been presented nationally at IMMA, Galway Arts Centre, Nun’s Island, while her film work has been screened internationally in the UK, Spain, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, the US, and more. She was recently awarded the Dance Commission Award (2023) and a Dance Residency (2024/25). Her work is supported by the Arts Council Ireland, Interface, Galway Dance, Galway County Council, and Interkulturelle Bildung Thüringen e.V. Music by Brett Sroka

About the duet

Stephanie and Sophie’s collaboration began in East Clare in 2021. Their ever-evolving duet explores dance as a physical language, with each meeting leaving them changed. Moving between the verbal and nonverbal, along with rhythm, dissonance, and electronic sound, their practices meet at a creative crossroads, converging in a rich, sometimes wordless dialogue. The duet serves as a testing ground for how movement can express the unspoken, mapping their shared emotional and physical journey. Recently, they began working with musician Roís, whose soundscape deepens the evolving conversation between the two dancers.

Choreographed and performed by:

Stephanie Keane is an Irish dance artist, from Limerick, Ireland. She is a dance performer, choreographer, filmmaker and theatre maker. Immersed in Irish dance for over 40 years, she continues to evolve as a dancer and creator of dance, through exploring and developing contemporary dance practices, music production techniques and sound & visual design tools. Sound exploration and the musicality of traditional Irish dance is at the root of her dance practice.

Sophie Hutchinson is a dance artist from Waterford who moved west in 2021. She trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and has created and performed with dance theatre companies across Europe, as well as independently with musicians, visual artists, and poets.
Passionate about learning, sharing, and connection, Sophie’s body-centred practice explores the intersection of the natural and digital through film and live performance—continually asking how dance can nurture presence, agency, and creative belonging in an ever-shifting world.

This showcase is supported by the Arts Council, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and the Town Hall Theatre in collaboration with the Galway Arts Centre/Nuns Island Theatre.