LAURA SARAH DOWDALL
LAURA
ABOUT THE DANCE ARTIST -
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 experiences of heightened personal and social awareness, and powerful moments of connection.
As a socially engaged artist, Laura's collaborative practice spans a decade of community engaged work across three interconnected strands —
Climate and Ecology -
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Creative community projects rooted in sea, park and forest environments engaging with communities across Ireland in climate conversation through dance, movement, eco-somatic practice, embodiment, constellation process, community picnics and performance projects.
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Recent performance work include: Lios an Uisce (2025, film selected for Bloomsday Film Festival 2025), ReRoot (2024, eight sold-out promenade performances), SeaScores (2024, coastal dance project in Dublin and Mayo) and Ode to the Sea (2023, Body of Water project, Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studios).
Access and Inclusion -
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Most notably the Running Blind Dance Project (2015–present), an ongoing movement project with deafblind and blind communities, sustained through long-term partnerships with the Anne Sullivan Centre for the Deafblind, Vision Ireland and Fighting Blindness.
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Laura is a pioneer in inclusive dance in Ireland, having developed original methodology to make dance practice and performance accessible to people with vision loss. Through the integration of creative audio description, haptic communication and informed touch, she has built a distinctive body of work, methodology and training that embeds access as a creative and artistic practice rather than an afterthought.
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Her Running Blind Production at Rua Red in 2017 was the first fully inclusive dance performances made with and for blind and visually impaired audiences in Ireland.
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In 2025, Laura collaborated with ChildVision and Fighting Blindness to create and present Dance for All — a landmark inclusive performance expanding how dance can be experienced by sighted and visually-impaired audience alike. The project was supported by the Create Project Realisation Award, a coveted award recognising and funding innovation in the presentation of inclusive arts performance of high artistic value.
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Laura is a professionally trained audio-describer, access artist and creative dramaturg supporting the realisation of inclusive, accessible arts practice, presentation and performance.
Heritage and Culture -
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Projects reconnecting local communities with the stories of people and place, where participants are co-creators — shaping, sharing, designing and integrating their lived experience, personal history and voice into the historical narrative.
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Current work includes, In Her Shoes - a community project exploring the hidden history of the Magdalen Laundry at St Patrick's Refuge, Dún Laoghaire, an institution that operated largely unknown from 1880 to 1963, supported by Creative Ireland and a Heritage Grant (2026).
INTERNATIONAL WORK
An international facilitator 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 science 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).
RECOGNITION & MEDIA
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 (2015, 2023) and Create Project Realisation Award recipient (2024–2025). She was Inaugural Artist at Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studios (2023) and 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), Dance Ireland Mentorship Award and Dance Ireland Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency Award (2016).
Laura's work has been featured on RTÉ One's Nationwide television programme (2024)- video below, 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).
Recent works include:
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Running Blind: Dance For All - Immersive performance for sighted and visually impaired audience, performed and created by VI cast integrating dance performance with creative audio description, haptic communication, soundscape, live music and audience interaction as part of the Create Project Realisation Award, 2025.
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Lios an Uisce- Film selected for Bloomsday Film Festival 2025, Outdoor Performance in the park amphitheatre and Community Dance Project in Blackrock Park Summer 2024.
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ReRoot - Promenade performances with sound installation, dance and spoken word in Barnaslinán Forest in collaboration with Sound Designer and Composer Robert Coleman, as part of Nature and Place Commission by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Arts Office, Dublin Mountain Partnership and Coillte, 2024.
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SeaScores- coastal dance project and performance in 2024 with community dancers in Dublin and Mayo, facilitating workshops, exchange and a community picnic focused on the topic of climate impact, coastal care and conservation.
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Ode to the Sea, site-specific performance when Laura was inaugural artist-in-residence at the newly renovated Dún Laoghaire Baths Artist Studios in 2023.
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Laura has performed in theatres, galleries, outdoor spaces, Victorian houses and festivals. She was commissioned to created and perform six new dance works for the Irish Composers Collective (2022), performed as international opening act of the National Choreography Showcase (USA, 2016), and has worked with international choreographers, ensembles and performance artists across dance and performance festivals since 2012 — including the gallery retrospective of Jennifer Walshe at the Model Gallery Sligo (2018) and Amanda Coogan at the RHA (2015). She was mentored by renowned artist Ulay, longtime artistic collaborator of Marina Abramović, at the Ricean School of Dance in Greece (2015).
2026 — RESIDENCIES & NEW WORK
In 2026, 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 — one of Ireland's most prestigious theatrical partnerships for dance development.
She has also been awarded the Uilinn Dance Studio Residency at West Cork Arts Centre and the Laois Arthouse Residency Award. She is a recipient of Creative Ireland Project Funding and a Heritage Grant supporting a new community project exploring the hidden history of the Magdalen Laundry at St Patrick's Refuge, Dún Laoghaire — an institution that operated largely unknown from 1880 to 1963.
COMMISSIONED & SUPPORTED BY
Arts Council of Ireland · Create · Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council · The Heritage Office · Creative Ireland · Dance Ireland · Rua Red Arts Centre
PRESENTATION
Laura's choreographic work has been presented at:
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Running Blind Inclusive Dance Performance, Dublin 2025
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Impinge Festival, Singapore 2025
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Aras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Mayo 2024
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Outdoor Amphitheatre Blackrock Park, 2024
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Barnaslingan Woods, Dublin Mountains 2024
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Dun Laoghaire Baths, 2023
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Dance Moves Festival, Netherlands 2023
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Irish Composers Collective Festival, 2022
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Biosphere Festival, 2020
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Dance Limerick, Oct 2019
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Temple Bar Gallery, December 2018
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The Model Gallery, Sligo August 2018
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Rua Red Performance Space 2017
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Submerge Dance Festival, Germany 2016
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Smock Alley Scene+Heard Festival 2016
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National Choreographic Showcase USA 2016
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Echo Echo Festival, Derry NI, 2015
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Impro Xchange Festival, Germany, 2015
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Dance Theatre of Ireland 2015
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Screen Dance Films ‘Elan’ and ‘Between’ shown in festivals in Ireland & abroad
INFLUENCES -
Laura enjoys collaborative practice and interdisciplinary exchange. She has worked with choreographers, dance theatre companies, filmmakers and interdisciplinary collaborators in Germany, Ireland, Greece, France and the USA.
Laura has had the opportunity to work and train with innovative creators in the field of experimental physical performance, contemporary dance, voice, contact and improvisation, some of which include: Rosalind Crisp, Andrew Morrish, Julyen Hamilton, Andrew Harwood, Nancy Stark Smyth, Maya Carroll, Bettina Neuhaus, Eva Karczeg, Stephanie Skura, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simons, Stephanie Maher, Noa Zuk, German Jauregui and Tom Pritchard.
INCLUSIVE DANCE PROJECT -RUNNING BLIND:
Running Blind began in 2015 when Laura was awarded the Create Artist in the Community Award to work with the Anne Sullivan Centre for the Deafblind, mentored by Amanda Coogan. The work of russ Palmer and Riita Lahtinhen inspired her to further develop connection between the nonverbal form of dance and social haptic communication. Research and collaboration continues to this day - Laura and the residents meet for a movement class every week since 2015.
In 2016, Laura extended the project to investigate new ways of experiencing dance through haptic communication and audio description for people who are visually impaired, supported by the Dance Ireland Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency Award. She worked with blind accessibility activist Walei Sabre (New York) and dancer Janie Doherty (Derry). The Dance Ireland Mentored Residency Award that same year supported her exploration of text and voice in dance, working with writer, dancer and theatre director Tom Pritchard.
As Dancer-in-Residence at Rua Red Arts Centre (2017), Laura presented a landmark accessible dance performance incorporating tactile environment, immersive soundscape, interactive performance and live audio description — three of the six performances included audiences with sight loss, and one performance attended by majority VI audience (over 70 per cent). This was the first inclusive dance performance in Ireland made with and attended by people with visual impairment.
In 2018, she delivered two six-week programmes in collaboration with the National Council for the Blind, supported by the DLR Arts Office and Arts Access Grant, and was awarded the Dublin Bus Community Spirit Award in recognition of the project's community impact. That same year, the Irish Independent featured Running Blind as the cover story of their Health Supplement, the article entitled 'Dancing in the Dark'.
Throughout 2019- 2022, Laura taught classes online for Vision Ireland honing her skills as she described for children and adults of all abilities and ages. In 2023, Laura was a tutor on Ireland's first Inclusive Dance Training (UCC/Dance Cork Firkin Crane) — bringing her decade of methodology directly into the formal training of the next generation of inclusive dance practitioners in Ireland. That same year she presented the work internationally as guest artist at MOVE ME! Dance Festival in the Netherlands, where she gave a performative talk and facilitated inclusive dance workshops for festival attendees.
In 2024, Laura's work with the blind community featured on RTÉ Nationwide (June 2024) — bringing national visibility to the project and to the importance of access in dance. She also presented workshops at the Retina International World Congress in Dublin, placing her methodology at the centre of international conversation between arts, science and vision health.
In 2025, the Dance for All project was created in collaboration with members of ChildVision and Fighting Blindness, enabled by the Create Project Realisation Award, a coveted award recognising and funding innovation in the presentation of inclusive arts performance of high artistic value. Performed by VI performers for sighted and visually impaired audiences alike, the Dance for All culminating performance expanded the ways in which dance can be experienced beyond our reliance of vision, demonstrating the full artistic potential of a decade of sustained, pioneering practice.
In 2026, Running Blind continues its evolution through Laura's selection for the Arts Council of Ireland Dance Artist Residency Scheme in partnership with The Gate Theatre and Dublin City Council — bringing this body of work into one of Ireland's most significant theatrical spaces and marking a new phase of artistic development, institutional collaboration and wider reach.
Running Blind Dance creates interactive dance performance accessible to blind, visually impaired and sighted audiences alike — bringing audiences on a multi-sensory tactile journey- offering a new way of experiencing dance. It is among the most sustained and pioneering examples of inclusive dance practice in Ireland.
To learn more about workshops, performance, projects or inclusive dance training : www.runningblind.ie
Contact laura@runningblind.ie for mentoring, training, embedded access and dramaturgical services.
SOMATIC WELLBEING -
Alongside her dance practice, Laura is the founder of Healing Yoga, facilitating somatic movement workshops, online classes and retreats — bringing her embodied research and movement practice into wider wellbeing contexts for all members of the community.
CONTACT-
Laura creates and collaborates internationally with artists, collectives and communities to create unique, engaging dance works and performance projects
Email:
Websites:
Dance/Choreography- www.laurasarahdowdall.wixsite.com/dancer
Inclusive Dance + Audio Description - www.runningblind.ie
Somatic Movement & Holistic Practice - www.healingyoga.ie
Instagram:
David Keane- The Reviews Hub
“Dowdall’s performance vacillated between ecstasy and despair, and she was a visual feast in pure flowing white… Dowdall was mesmerising and hypnotic ...an intriguing performance with Dowdall and O’Braoin being above par in their respective field."
Tatiana Lobza- Dance Reviewer
“Laura’s movements were mesmerizing and flawless making you part of something special and intimate – the world you don’t explore or see every day... you feel the strength and more confident steps, emotions, light and darkness, momentous joy and realization of reality. Laura is magnificent to watch."
