With the principle of sustainability at the heart of this award, Hatch is designed to support resilience, connection, and creative breathing space. The awards 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. 

The biggest gift Hatch offered me last year was the resource to have conversations with design collaborators.  Too often for me, those conversations happen with the pressure of a creation process.  Hatch allowed us to have artist to artist exchange outside that usual framework and I gained so much from the designers' perspectives.  Knowing what enriches our creative process and having the resource to do so are different things.  Hatch provided the support do some focused work that has already been of great benefit as I develop my next piece.  - Fearghus Ó Conchúir, HATCH Artistic Research Award, 2024 

I am positive that my capabilities as a choreographer will only improve after having discussed so many concerns with my mentor and clarified many doubts. I can say that up to now I have gained important tools I was missing to move forward on my path as a creator – Rocio Dominguez, HATCH Mentoring Award 2021/Creation Award 2023 

2025 HATCH

Open Call
Find out about HATCH 2025 and how to apply here.

Deadline
Friday 4 April at 12pm.

2024 HATCH

Creation Award
Eileen McClory

Artistic Research Award
Fearghus Ó'Conchúir, Laura Murphy, Tara Brandel

Mentoring Award 
Alexandra Vostokova, Nóra Far, Tara-Marie Angeline Bredemeier

More information on the 2024 award here.

2023 HATCH

Creation Award
Rocío Dominguez

Artistic Research Award
Alessandra Azevedo, Eileen McClory & Ailish Claffey

Mentoring Award 
Ruaidhrí Maguire, Michael McEvoy, Aneta Dortová

More information on the 2023 award here.

2022 HATCH

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. In 2022, as we continued the process of recovery and navigate a changed environment, we introduced an enhanced offer, the Creation Award, in recognition of the diverse needs of artists at different stages of their practice and career. 

Creation Award
Matt Szczerek

Artistic Research Award
Lapree Ncube, Eileen McClory & Maria Nilsson Waller

Mentoring Award 
Helen Keenan, Sarah Ryan & Roberta Ceginskaite

More information on the 2022 award here.

2021 HATCH

HATCH 2020 and 2021 is a response to our changed environment. Covid-19, and the public health measures we are now living with have deeply impacted how artists live and how work can be made.

Four awards were given to established dance artists to invest in practice, and four awards to early career dance artists to engage in mentoring and support. 

Established Dance Artists
Emily Aoibheann, Lisa Cliffe, Rob Heaslip, Luke Murphy

Early Career Dance Artists 
Ali Clarke, Rocío Dominguez, Jessie Thompson, Caiomhe Wandel-Brannigan

More information on the 2021 award here.

2020 HATCH

Established Dance Artists
Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Maria Svensson, Mary Wycherley, Catherine Young

Early Career Dance Artists 
Mia DiChiaro, Oran Leong, Nicholas Nwosu, Roisin Whelan

More information on the 2020 award here.

2019 HATCH: Laura Murphy

During HATCH, Laura will research and examine the art in women’s everyday lives.

It will explore the everyday actions performed by contemporary women in Ireland. It will chronicle the daily lives of women as we go about achieving our goals. It aims to celebrate the countless little tasks and chores that go into being ourselves.

Laura’s research is in collaboration with a team of artists: writer/poet Niamh Prior; composer/sound artist Irene Buckley; dance artist Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín; film-maker Mary Wycherley; dance artist Colin Dunne; and sound therapist Chloe McHugh. She will also invite women of all ages from the community into her research process, offering workshops and opportunities to engage with her process.

Read more HERE 

HATCH 2018: Lucia Kickham
 

Lucia used HATCH as an incubation period to examine the place of warm-up in contemporary dance practice. With a team of skilled dancers, guest movement practitioners, a DJ and a sports psychologist, she investigated how we, as dancers and humans, make ourselves available and open for action. How do we prepare ourselves for the unexpected and as yet unimagined future? Lucia and her creative team  explored the concepts of adaptive preparation, versatile readiness and reactive availability in performance, within dance and other movement disciplines.

During the HATCH residency Lucia will structure her studio research using the Scrum process model. This is an iterative, reflective framework used in the software development industry to create critical feedback loops and meet project goals.

Through HATCH, Lucia is excited to develop her choreographic practice while researching for this new work INIT: The Warm Up Project.

HATCH 2017: Maria Nilsson Waller

Maria Nilsson Waller used HATCH to begin research for a new work integrating movement, set and sound together with a team of multidisciplinary artists. The work created is informed by themes of multiverses, choice and consequence. She alos continued to develop a method of movement training which will influence the choreographic language of her work. Maria used this opportunity to develop these ideas in a focused way and to engage further with the local dance community through work-in-progress sharings and through Dance Ireland’s professional training program.

‘To be able to bring in this team of creative people in so early and discover [the work] together has been a really special experience and is really rare.’ – Maria Nilsson Waller, HATCH Recipient 2017

HATCH 2016: Rob Heaslip

As the inaugural recipient of this award, Rob used HATCH to focus on a new approach to creating performance that is porous and adventurous. The process focused on bringing together elements of musical composition and vocal interaction with the moving body. This will be an extension and progression of his recent movement studies that look towards visceral responses that can be manifested amongst individuals.

‘The simplicity of HATCH is its greatest strength.  As an artist who does not reside in Dublin, the time also allowed me to meet and get to know so many other artists and other sector colleagues. It provided me the time to be present in such a vibrant city which such an incredible performance sector.’ - Rob Heaslip, HATCH recipient 2016