Festival Artists 2022

Aisling Byrne  – Run of the Mill Theatre – (IRELAND) (www.runofthemilltheatre.com)

Aisling leads the Selkie workshop for audiences with diverse additional needs. The Selkie is one of our oldest legends of the sea and Aisling brings it to life for younger audiences through participation, sensory practice and immersive storytelling.

Richard Molloy (IRELAND) (www.iims.com)

Richard will be delivering a wonderful CPD workshop for educators that is also accessible to parents. It will focus on ways of incorporating more music into our everyday lives. He will also offer an interactive workshop that explores shape as a means of enabling young children to compose music.

Rebecca Gilbert (Ireland) (www.iims.com)

Rebecca is our early years music expert and she leads a beautiful singing workshop, introducing the songs of the sea we know and love from times gone by. There is nothing like giving it welly and singing together to overcome difficulties we may be experiencing. No previous experience necessary!

Akvile Simanskiene (Lithuania/Ireland)

Akvile is a visual artist originally from Lithuania and living in Balbriggan. In the past year she has created the beautiful mosaics you see around the beach area in the town and she is completing a final one, with the participation of some of the youngest citizens of the town! Akvile will present visual arts experiences on the theme of the beach along with storyteller and early years actress Cliodhna Noonan.

Cliodhna Noonan (Ireland) (www.actinguparts.weebly.com)

Well known early years artist in Fingal, and chairperson of Grasshoppers IEYF, Cliodhna returns with a storytelling session for very young audiences based on the beach and the sea. Cliodhna also presents a workshop with the magnificent trolls of puppeteer master Vitalijus Mazurkas from Vilnius in Lithuania.

Angelica Santander (Chile/Ireland)

Angelica is a professional clown, a circus artist and an early years storyteller based in Dublin. A recipient of the Exploring and Thinking award of the four Dublin Councils in 2021, she will work with the youngest audiences in a participatory workshop involving early circus skills and story.

Joeri Wens (Belgium) (www.joeriwens.be)

Joeri is a professional jazz musician living in Belgium who also presents beautiful first time music experiences for families with very young children and children with additional needs. The sessions are led by the prompts of both Joeri and the audience he is working with and each performance is different. Enjoy the magical moments of wonder as sounds create musical memories for life.  

Theater Nuu (Austria)  (www.theaternuu.at)

Austrian company Theater Nuu presents an interactive and immersive workshop about the ocean called BLUE. Led by experienced artist Laura Lee Jacobi the children will explore the colour and the world of the ocean. Blue is a clownesque performance about waiting – and longing for – the sea! The main character is a dye artist. She turns everything blue. In her small blue world, she finds her friends between the paintbrushes.

Rachel Dean (UK) (www.racheldeandance.co.uk)

Dance artist Rachel Dean will have our young audiences up on their feet and moving in no time! Rachel joins us via zoom from the UK. A well-experienced and professional movement artist for early years in the UK, Rachel presents a beach-themed participatory workshop for Grasshoppers IEYF live from the UK via the big screen!!!