Directors encompass a wide variety of key skills in artistic programming, choreography, dance, legal affairs, marketing and project management.
Dance Ireland Board of Directors:
Marion Ryan, Chairperson
Project Management, Governance, Business Acumen
Marion Ryan has over thirty years of Industry experience in the Healthcare, Finance & Telecommunications sectors. During her 17-year career in Intel, she established and led strong global Program Management organizations which provided sustainable value to the business groups they supported. She was also appointed General Manager for the Intel Shannon site from 2022 - March 2024. Throughout her career, Marion has placed a strong focus on developing people, managerial & leadership skills through various Management roles she held. She is a strong advocate for Diversity & Inclusion and for Leadership Development and she played an active role across Intel in driving key initiatives and programs that enabled people to achieve their next level of potential.
Outside of work, Marion has a keen interest in Irish Music & Irish Dance. Prior to pursuing her Computer Science career path, she achieved a B.Mus. in Classical music followed by a Masters in Irish traditional Music from UCC. She also holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.
Marion was co-opted to the board in Sep 2022 and appointed Chairperson in January 2023.
Emma Morgan
Experience in Non profit Sector, Public Sector, Arts management
Emma Morgan has worked across the non-profit and public sectors for 15 years. She has a background specialising in income generation, business development, organisational strategy and project management. She is a senior manager in the civil service with a focus on project management. formerly the vice-chair and development board member for Helium Arts, former board member with the National Youth Orchestra and currently career mentor with For Purpose; Emma is deeply interested and invested in professional and organisational development of the within the nonprofit sector.
She holds an MA from University College Dublin in Cultural Policy and Arts Management, the focus of which was how charitable organisations use arts-based programmes and products as part of their fundraising mix. In her spare time, she participates in aerial dance particularly Lyra hoop.
Emma was co-opted to the board at the AGM in Sep 2022.
Kristyn Fontanella
As a choreographer/dance artist Kristyn Fontanella focuses her past knowledge of Irish step dancing and presents it in a contemporary context. Having toured for many years with Riverdance, Lord of the Dance & as lead soloist in Gaelforce Dance, her current mission is to show another side of the complex world of Irish Step dancing to future generations.
Kristyn creates, directs and produces her own work which has successfully toured across Ireland as well as showing in DRFI in NYC, Dublin Dance Festival, Echo Echo Dance Platform, Marseille New Danse Festival & Tanzmesse Germany. Her creative focus now is on a new outdoor solo work tracing her dance/family tree, with support from Town Hall Theatre Patrons Donation Award, Galway International Arts Festival Elevate Bursary and a Bursary Award from the Irish Arts Council. She is also the 2024 artist in residence through the International Residency Initiative Scheme with Earagail Arts Festival, Cairde Festival, ISACS and Fira Tárrega.
In October 2023, Kristyn was appointed as Executive Director of Galway Dance, a dance resource organization supporting the development of professional dance practice across Galway city/county and the west coast of Ireland. She is thrilled to bring her experience as a dance artist to this role to expand the dance sector in the west.
Kristyn finds producing, rehearsal direction, and performing other artists’ work to be a benefit to her own creative practice. She has co-produced and managed choreographer Laura Murphy’s dance piece ‘ABACUS’ at the 2017 Dublin Fringe, 2018 What’s Next Dance Festival, 2021 Fira Tàrrega Festival in Spain, and in Tanzmesse 2022 main programme performance in Düsseldorf. Kristyn also performed and line-produced in Murphy’s work ‘The Shake’ at the 2021 Cork Midsummer Festival and 2022 Dublin Dance Festival.
Most recently she produced for Joan Davis’s ‘Garden as Gallery’ 2023-24, Catherine Young Dance; ‘CISEACH’ 2024 premier, ‘Floating on a Dead Sea’ premier in 2021 and ‘A Call to You’ in 2022 as part of DDF, and its national 8 venue tour in 2023. Kristyn is currently producing another eight-venue tour of ‘Floating on a Dead Sea’ by CYD for October 2024 supported by the Arts Council.
Rob Heaslip
Within his professional practice Rob Heaslip works internationally as a choreographer, dancer, movement director and teacher. He creates his own ensemble work as well as collaborative works, spanning dance theatre, live performance, installation, dance-on-screen, and also works in T.V. & Film.
Rob began his career with the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, training at both the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at The University of Limerick.
As an artist he is interested in how he can re-imagine human rituals for the viewer of today; abstracting the performing body as a vessel for intertwining dance, voice and design.
His style combines movement and theatricality with mythos, neon lights, synth music and contemporary aesthetics to portray stories about people, how they think, move and act amongst each other.
Rob’s work has been presented in Ireland, U.K., U.S.A., Sweden, Spain, Germany and China, with highlights including The Made In Scotland Showcase at Edinburgh Fringe, Tanzmesse Dusseldorf, Dublin Dance Festival, AGITART, and Dance International Glasgow.
Rob was elected to the board of Dance Ireland in September 2022. His expertise supplies knowledge and live-experience of the issues facing independent artists on local, national and international scales.
Stephen Gill
Stephen joined the board of Dance Ireland in June 2023 as a non-executive Director. Stephen chairs the Finance Committee of the Board and is Acting Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Stephen has over 35 years business experience and has held senior positions in professional services, financial services, IT services, aircraft leasing and healthcare.
He is a Chartered Accountant (Australia), holds a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University and a Masters of Business Administration from University College Dublin. He has significant experience in finance, risk, control and business operations. Stephen is Chief Financial Officer at Waterstone Clinic.
Aoife Duff, Secretary
Aoife is a Recruitment Consultant on the Talent Management Services team at 2into3. She is a dedicated and compassionate HR professional with a strong commitment in helping mission-driven organisations have a transformative social impact. She holds a strong track record of sourcing and hiring talent for different positions (Senior and Graduate) within the nonprofit sector. She is skilled at end-to-end recruitment, learning and development, and adept at building relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
She holds a BA in International Development and French, and has spent time studying abroad. She has an extensive travel list, and enjoys swimming, socialising with friends, and reading. As Company Secretary, Aoife provides legal and administrative support to the board of directors.
Directors are elected from the membership at AGM and also co-opted. All co-opted positions are endorsed at AGM. Directors are appointed to serve an initial 2-year term (renewable), up to a maximum of 6 years. The board meets quarterly, in addition to AGM and other meetings as required.
The board is mindful of its responsibilities to ensure that the correct skill set is in place, and is committed to recruiting as follows: four places will be filled through co-option and five places filled through membership election. The board maintains its commitment to ensuring gender, geographical spread and genre representation at all times.
The board is committed to regular reviews, and has developed the Dance Ireland Governance Framework, a suite of documents, setting out the policies and procedures, systems and procedures and policies informing how it conducts its business, and how we comply with the standards set out in the Principles of Good Governance. The responsibility for Dance Ireland is vested in the board of directors, with management delegated to the Chief Executive and executive team.