HATCH 2022 Recipients

08/07/2022

What are the HATCH awards?

In 2020, in response to the changes brought about by the pandemic, we reimagined the shape of our Hatch Award to encourage resilience, connection and creative breathing space. This year, as we continue the process of recovery and navigate a changed environment, we have an enhanced offer, in recognition of the diverse needs of artists at different stages of their practice and career. 

The awards will still focus on investing in time for artists to think, reflect on and reimagine their creative processes, make connections with other artists; and will provide an enhanced opportunity for one dance artist to experiment, collaborate, and seed and develop a new work.

There are three strands to this year’s Hatch Awards:

Hatch Mentoring Award – three awards of €500 for early career artists to engage in mentoring and support.
Hatch Artistic Research Award – three awards of €3000 to invest in and support practice for established artists.
Hatch Creation Award – one award of €7000 for a mid-career or established artist to provide an incubation opportunity to focus on seeding and developing a new work.

We are delighted to announce the following artists have been offered awards:

CREATION AWARD- Matt Szczerek

The HATCH Creation Award is an initiative designed to provide an incubation opportunity for a dance maker(s) to focus on seeding and developing a new work. The award offers the resources needed in a creative process to experiment, develop and work collaboratively, and can be used to resource a transition period for a maker, which would not otherwise be possible.

Matt Szczerek

Mateusz Szczerek is a Dublin based dance artist and professional member of Dance Ireland.

His recent work includes Residency at Project Arts Centre to develop new climate conscious dance work called END., Digital RSS Commission 2021 in The Civic as a lead artist, choreography for dance/circus production Blame Game premiered at Bristol Circus City in October 2021 planned for touring in 2022/23 and Dance Ireland project LETS DANCE for Cruinniu na nOg 2021.

Matt also continues to direct Dance2Connect, a 3 day Street Dance Festival at The Civic supported by Arts Council Festival funding.

In 2019 he was selected to be part of The Lir’s LIGHTING DESIGN FOR DANCE mentored by Liz Roche.

In 2018 Mateusz choreographed FABLE for Dublin Fringe Festival (Project Art Centre) nominated for best ensemble award. Matt worked regularly with CoisCeim Dance Theatre performing as a principal dancer in THE WOLF & PETER (2017 Sydney Opera House). In 2017 he was selected by Far From The Norm dance company as a lead Irish artist in international production UNION BLACK, funded by Creative Europe touring UK, France, Sweden, Ireland.

ARTISTIC RESEARCH AWARD- Lapree Ncube, Eileen McClory & Maria Nilsson Waller

We are offering three awards of €3,000 to invest in and support practice for established artists,; this inculdes dedicating time to our Mentoring Awardees.

Lapree Ncube

Lapree is a professional dance artist in Dance Ireland and an instructor who specialises in Afrodance and Confidence building. As an advocate for change and womens rights, she is currently hosting classes to promote integration and community. 

She has worked with the Irish Refugee Council with a project called “Move Your Mood” where they taught young displaced youth on how to dance Afro and had therapy sessions on their transitions to Ireland. Lapree has recently performed in Google for Africa in celebration of African culture and dance. She also featured in LinkedIn as an representative of showcasing Afro culture in Corporate companies. 

Lapree owns a dance brand called SouthSideMoves where she provides dance classes and community engagement sessions where people from all over the world come together to celebrate unity and being able to connect through dance. Through her brand she has been able to perform for the Bloco Átha Cliath event to showcase the different styles that she collaborate with namely; dancehall, afrohouse, hip hop, contemporary and belly dance. 

Since the pandemic, Lapree has worked and supportied local Irish artists such as Superstar YB, Dapalapa, King Joe in their music videos and performances. For upcoming projects, she is currently working on a talk show segment to discuss issues that dancers or creative artists face in the community while incorporating a exposure segment to get upcoming artists to showcase their craft and to network

Eileen McClory

As an established Dance Artist, Eileen has received commissions from Quotidian: Word on the Street, BIND 2021, Maiden Voyage Dance Company: EPILOGUE 2021, BRINK 2020, The Playhouse Derry: TURF 2018, Tinderbox Theatre Company: CUCK 2017.

Eileen has worked with: The Playhouse, Derry; Tinderbox Theatre Company, Theatre of Pluck, Replay, ponydance, Accidental Theatre, DU Dance, Bruiser Theatre Company and Assault Events (UK). She has performed in international festivals such as Bauhaus Summary (DE) Christchurch Festival, Taranaki Arts
Festival (NZ), Darwin Festival (AUS), Greenspace Festival (USA), Belfast Festival at Queens, Feile An Phobail, Pick n Mix Festival, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and Outburst Arts (all in NI). Residencies include Belfast International Arts Festival: Artist in Residence 2020/22, Dansmakers,
Amsterdam: The Game Show supported by Arts Council NI, 2016 HATCH Artist, The MAC Belfast, 2013/14.

Maria Nilsson Waller

Maria Nilsson Waller is a dance artist, choreographer, teacher and designer. She trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet school, ECSD Rosella Hightower, Cannes and Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. She has been working freelance across Europe since 2004, and is since 2009 based in Dublin. 

Together with multidisciplinary artist Stace Gill she co-founded Flora Fauna Project in 2017, currently dance artists in residence at D-Light Studios, Dublin.

With work described as pure emotion, mesmerising and profound she repeatedly draws our attention to our relationship to nature and the environment, to our relationship with the wild, our own bodies and natural intelligence, examining the borders between the known and unknown, science versus faith and mythology.

Independent productions to date include: Walker (2010), Ingenmansland (2011), Last Land (2012), Stream (2013), Founder (2014), Blanca (2015), Journey (2015), ÖFK - See the Man (2015), Prime (2016), Merry.Go.Round (2017), Flora + Fauna (2018), Lumen (2019), The River (2020), Praying Positions/Metamorphosis (2020) and This is Home (2022). 

MENTORING AWARD- Helen Keenan, Sarah Ryan & Roberta Ceginskaite

We are offering three €500 awards to early career artists to engage in mentoring and support.

Helen Keenan

Helen is a multidisciplinary artist with a passion for creating innovative, high-octane performance that is movement-led. She is inspired and influenced by dynamic, ensemble, physical theatre, and the relationship between circus and dance. She deeply interested in how these disciplines can co-exist, support and transform storytelling within movement based performance.

Helen has been exploring the world of circus and interactive technology for the last 2 years, and has been awarded multiple opportunities since returning to Ireland in 2019, including residencies at Shawbrook, Backstage, Cavan Town Hall, Dance Ireland, and awards such as the Launch Pad Award, DARS and Agility. 

Helen is excited to be breaking new ground in her creativity and approach to making performance using strong visual and kinetic elements to tell a compelling story, blending text, cinematics, physical theatre, dance and aerial.

Sarah Ryan

Based in Dublin, Sarah Ryan has worked as a dance performer with a wide range of choreographers, directors and companies from different artistic backgrounds; these include Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Liz Roche, Philip Connaughton, Laura Murphy, Opera Theatre Company, Áine Stapleton, John O’Brien, Jessie Keenan, Ponydance, Croí Glan, Mary Wycherley, Cie Willie Dorner, amongst others.

These works have been included in the Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Cork Midsummers Festival, as well as national and international tours. She has also worked as an assistant for numerous choreographers on the creation and development of new work including work for the Abbey Theatre, as well as exploring collaboration with different artists for the creation of interdisciplinary immersive performances. 

Before settling in Ireland Sarah performed and choreographed work in Nantes, France after completing her training in Scotland.

Roberta Ceginskaite

Born in Lithuania and raised in Ireland, Roberta trained in The Netherlands.

Roberta is eternally curious and playful. Currently settling back into Ireland, she enjoys dancing to ones own rhythms, with joyous radiance. Working in collaboration with different disciplines excites her. This sharing of experiences opens up infinite possibilities of connection and care, which are important to Roberta.She is a performer and a maker and seeks to extend further beyond what she knows. 

Roberta was a participant of this year’s Step Up Dance Project in Limerick. Recently, she was also an artist in residence at the Blickfelder Festival in Zürich, Switzerland. There, she had spontaneous tryouts with other artists, and began a dance solo creation for children. Her work often draws inspiration from the absurdity and magic of living. Many ideas are swirling in her head,and she is ooking forward to sharing them out with the crowd.