It’s very valuable to me. It’s the culmination of a long career, which is important. It’s important to me that, as an Irish dance maker, I have had this longevity.

 

I don’t have one.

 

Well, that’s a good question. So maybe It’s really important to state that while I personally don’t have a vision for contemporary dance on Ireland, I have a huge commitment to the development of dance practices there and that includes contemporary, ballet, traditional and all the hybrid forms.

 

My position is about nurturing a very inclusive sector as opposed to me personally wanting to achieve any particular end result. And I think I can relate that answer back to the first question - as a dance artist, I would be very upset if anyone else was trying to control my artistic agenda, so I really feel it’s very important that I, as the leader of Dance Ireland, which is a national resource, would just facilitate people. And whatever their vision is, that’s what I want to achieve for them and with them.

 

My strengths are the universal ones in that I have a huge commitment to the work, I have a huge determination to see things through and I have a great capacity to work hard. But the weaknesses… I think that sometimes I take things too personally and I think a leader needs to be slightly above all of that.

 

I think have a wonderful ability to communicate and to advocate and to encourage people and bring them along on my journey. I use a huge number of different strategies to do that. Humour is very important to me and I see that as a way of breaking down a lot of barriers. And in terms of weaknesses… I think some people become intimidated because I have a very loud voice, and I can be quite emphatic, even though I may not mean to be.

7. What’s the most important thing you’ll take away from CD? 

There are quite a few important things, but the one thing is new learning. The really important thing for me over the 18 months has been learning new things, seeing new work but also meeting an amazing range of new people that I probably wouldn’t have access to as the leader of Dance Ireland in a national context.

 

That’s an interesting one because my end goal has shifted considerably over the last 18 months. Previously, it was to leave quite a well-resourced Dance Ireland as it exists now, but I think now that I would want to leave an autonomous Dance Ireland as opposed to the model we have at the moment, which involves partnering with many people and relies on state support. That would be my ultimate legacy.

 

Keep talking, keep smiling, keep engaging, keep going to see work, even though it might frustrate you - just keep going.

 

I have a huge number of regrets, but I think I have turned them into strengths because, while I have made particular choices, I realise that those choice maybe were guiding me in a particular direction. A lot of my regrets are about not taking up certain opportunities that people offered, but if I had taken them up, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here today.