ABOUT THE DANCE ARTIST

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Laura Sarah Dowdall is an innovative dance artist creating experiential, immersive work integrating spoken word, film and site-specific performance. Her practice and choreography focus on researching the body in its expanded, transformative, political and imaginative states — breaking boundaries of hierarchy and expectation, and offering audiences powerful moments of connection and heightened personal and social awareness. She incorporates text, instant composition, immersive theatre, durational performance and cinematography into contemporary dance work staged live, site-specifically, and on film.

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As a socially engaged artist, Laura's practice is rooted in an instinct to notice what's at risk of being lost, unacknowledged or forgotten, and giving it presence through the body. Across three interconnected strands — Access and Inclusion, Climate and Ecology, and Heritage and Culture — her work makes space for people, places and stories that might otherwise go unheard: the world beyond vision, environments under threat, and histories left out of the record.

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Access and Inclusion — Most notably the Running Blind Dance Project (2015–present), an ongoing inclusive dance project with deafblind and blind communities, and Ireland's first fully inclusive dance performance made with and for blind and visually impaired audiences (Rua Red, 2017). A pioneer in inclusive dance in Ireland, Laura has developed original methodology — integrating creative audio description, haptic communication and informed touch — to make dance and its performance accessible to people with visual impairment since 2015, embedding access as artistic practice rather than afterthought. As a professional audio-describer, access artist and creative dramaturg, she delivers training to dance artists, arts organisations, venues and arts professionals, supporting a cultural shift in how the sector understands and delivers inclusive performance. Full story on runningblind.ie →

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Climate and Ecology — site-specific performances and community projects rooted in sea, park and forest environments, engaging communities across Ireland and abroad in climate conversation through dance, embodiment and eco-somatic practice. Her Body of Water practice developed as inaugural artist of Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studios (2023), where she developed land and water-based dance practices, which have been brought to coastal communities in Dublin, Galway, Mayo and Hong Kong. Recent work includes the forest-based promenade performance ReRoot (2024), Lios an Uisce (2025) and SeaScores (2024) See more on Productions →

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Heritage and Culture —  Projects reconnecting communities with the stories of place, where participants are co-creators, giving voice to people, past and present, through oral history and storytelling. Recent work includes Outside Our Door (2026), uncovering the hidden history of St Patrick's Refuge, Ireland's unknown Magdalene laundry in Dún Laoghaire (1880–1963) — one of only ten to remain after Ireland became a Free State — developed with those who lived in DLR during its existence. Alongside this, Luisne, a screendance film capturing a Victorian house and its historical and architectural story at risk of being lost, premiered at the Irish Film Institute as part of Irish Modern Dance Theatre's festival, 2026.

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PRESENTATION

Laura's work has been presented at festivals, theatres, galleries, site-specific locations and cultural institutions in Ireland and internationally, developed through a sustained record of residencies, commissions and awards.

She has worked with international choreographers, ensembles and performance artists across dance and performance since 2012.  Notably, she was mentored by renowned artist Ulay, longtime artistic collaborator of Marina Abramović, at the Ricean School of Dance in Greece (2015).

 

INTERNATIONAL WORK

An international teacher and speaker bridging arts, science, wellbeing, access and inclusion, Laura has presented performances, films, masterclasses,  workshops, collaborative projects, artist talks and trainings in Ireland, USA, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong. She has spoken at global arts and health conferences including: Vision 2022 Global Conference and the Retina International World Congress (2024), and was international guest artist at MOVE ME! Dance Festival, Netherlands (2023).

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AWARDS

Laura has been selected by the Arts Council of Ireland for the Dance Artist Residency Scheme, in partnership with The Gate Theatre and Dublin City Council (2026).

 

She was selected as a Next Generation Artist by the Arts Council of Ireland (2016), is a Create Artist in the Community Award recipient (2015, 2023) and Create Project Realisation Award recipient (2024–2025).

 

Laura was selected as inaugural Artist at Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studios (2023) and was a tutor on Ireland's first Inclusive Dance Training (UCC/Firkin Crane, 2023).

 

Further awards include the Pavilion Theatre Studio Space Award (2019), Dance Limerick Percolate Residency Award (2019), Rua Red Dancer in Residence Award (2017), and Dance Ireland's Mentorship Award and Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency Award (2016).

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Laura's work has been featured on RTÉ One's Nationwide (2024), photographed on the front page of the Irish Times (2023), and as the cover story of The Irish Independent Health Supplement ("Dancing in the Dark", 2018).

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