About
Laura Murphy is an award winning choreographer and dance artist based in Ireland. Taking an expansive approach to dance, she developed a multi-disciplinary dance practice, working in stage performance, film, installation and large scale, socially engaged projects. With her trademark all female casts, her work has been described as gentle and eccentric.
Collaboration lies at the heart of her practice, creating connections with wide network of artists, communities and contexts. Over the past number of years she has worked with dance artists to include Colin Dunne, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Rob Heaslip, Mary Nunan, Jean Butler and Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín; visual artists Gemma Riggs, Astrid Walsh and Rhona Byrne; composers Matteo Fargion, Irene Buckley, Michael Gallen and Alma Kelleher, and animator Alan Early.
Laura Murphy Dance has been presented internationally at festivals and galleries such as Tanzmesse (DE), Fira Tàrrega (ES), Reykjavik Dance Festival (IS), Edinburgh Fringe (UK), Judson Church (US), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO), NN Contemporary Northampton (UK), Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (US), Dublin Dance Festival and Cork Midsummer Festival (IRL).
Laura has been the recipient of numerous National Arts Council awards, as well as several prestigious national and international residencies. She was awarded Best Movement Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017 for her work on 'Whitby' at the Bram Stoker Festival.
Laura graduated from the University of Limerick in 2005 with an M.A Contemporary Dance Performance; from Trinity Laban, London in 2006 with a P.D.D.S. and in 2014 with a Specialist Diploma in Choreological Studies. Since 2009 she has lectured in dance and Choreological Studies at the University of Limerick and held the position of Acting Course Director, MA Contemporary Dance Performance in 2015. She currently teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students, Drama and Theatres Studies at Trinity College, Dublin.
Most recently, Laura Murphy Dance toured a large scale dance work 'Abacus' to South America, and premiered and toured a new series of multi disciplinary films 'This Is It | 8 dance portraits' (Irish Film Institute/Dublin Dance Festival '24). In 2024 Laura was Associate Director to Jean Butler on her acclaimed production 'What We Hold' (Irish Arts Centre, New York). She continues to work with Joan Davis and performed in 'Garden as Gallery'(2022-'24).
Laura is currently working as co-curator of Light Moves, Festival of Screendance 2025 and Open Futures, Studio Light Moves.
Laura Murphy is an award winning choreographer and dance artist based in Ireland. Taking an expansive approach to dance, she developed a multi-disciplinary dance practice, working in stage performance, film, installation and large scale, socially engaged projects. With her trademark all female casts, her work has been described as gentle and eccentric.
Collaboration lies at the heart of her practice, creating connections with wide network of artists, communities and contexts. Over the past number of years she has worked with dance artists to include Colin Dunne, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Rob Heaslip, Mary Nunan, Jean Butler and Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín; visual artists Gemma Riggs, Astrid Walsh and Rhona Byrne; composers Matteo Fargion, Irene Buckley, Michael Gallen and Alma Kelleher, and animator Alan Early.
Laura Murphy Dance has been presented internationally at festivals and galleries such as Tanzmesse (DE), Fira Tàrrega (ES), Reykjavik Dance Festival (IS), Edinburgh Fringe (UK), Judson Church (US), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO), NN Contemporary Northampton (UK), Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (US), Dublin Dance Festival and Cork Midsummer Festival (IRL).
Laura has been the recipient of numerous National Arts Council awards, as well as several prestigious national and international residencies. She was awarded Best Movement Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017 for her work on 'Whitby' at the Bram Stoker Festival.
Laura graduated from the University of Limerick in 2005 with an M.A Contemporary Dance Performance; from Trinity Laban, London in 2006 with a P.D.D.S. and in 2014 with a Specialist Diploma in Choreological Studies. Since 2009 she has lectured in dance and Choreological Studies at the University of Limerick and held the position of Acting Course Director, MA Contemporary Dance Performance in 2015. She currently teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students, Drama and Theatres Studies at Trinity College, Dublin.
Most recently, Laura Murphy Dance toured a large scale dance work 'Abacus' to South America, and premiered and toured a new series of multi disciplinary films 'This Is It | 8 dance portraits' (Irish Film Institute/Dublin Dance Festival '24). In 2024 Laura was Associate Director to Jean Butler on her acclaimed production 'What We Hold' (Irish Arts Centre, New York). She continues to work with Joan Davis and performed in 'Garden as Gallery'(2022-'24).
Laura is currently working as co-curator of Light Moves, Festival of Screendance 2025 and Open Futures, Studio Light Moves.
