Applications open for Dance Project Award 2026 (Ireland)

Deadline: 24-Jul-25

Applicants are now invited to apply for the Dance Project Award 2026 to support specific artistic projects in dance.

It focuses on enabling individual artists and organisations to bring their ideas to fruition and create excellent artistic work.

Objectives

• The purpose of the award is to support ambitious, high-quality, professional dance initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience or public.
• The focus of the award is on enabling the production of technically excellent and ambitious dance projects, to attract and develop audiences for professional dance, and to offer high-quality employment opportunities to freelance artists.

Categories

• Strand 1: The objective of this strand is to support high-quality, ambitious, smaller-scale dance projects.
• Priority will be given to proposals that:
  • Demonstrate ambitious, high-quality, stand-alone dance performances, created to engage and connect with an audience or the public
  • Are led by a dance artist/choreographer/dancer demonstrating strong artistic expression and with potential to further develop their practice through the realisation of new work
  • Can demonstrate their feasibility by offering realistic income projections and evidence of financial and in-kind support from other sources
• Strand 2: The objective of this strand is to enable the presentation by established artists and/or producing entities with a demonstrable track record in the production of dance for audiences.
• Priority will be given to proposals that:
  • Demonstrate ambitious, high-quality, stand-alone dance performances that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience and the public
  • Reflect a strong relationship and significant level of investment between the applicant and project partner(s), and lead to high-quality production values for the completed work
  • Are produced and presented in conjunction with a festival or networks/consortia of festivals and/arts centres

Funding Information

• Strand 1: up to €50,000
• Strand 2: up to €100,000

Eligibility Criteria

• The award is open to professional artists and organisations working in dance who are resident or based in Republic of Ireland.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Applicants who cannot apply include the following:
  • Organisations currently in receipt of funding under the following Arts Council programmes: Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Funding, Partnership Funding – though the involvement of such organisations as partners is welcome
  • Organisations or individuals in receipt of 2026 Arts Grant Funding
  • National Cultural Institutions (or their Council members) directly funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
  • Individuals or organisations who do not have a demonstrable track record as professional artists or organisations.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.