DANCING LIVES AND MENTAL HEALTH Dance Talk

The mental health of an artist is important. Dancers can face many challenges and stressors, how do you look after your mental health while developing your career? In this panel discussion, the expert panel will talk in detail around this.

The panel includes international dance artists Adrienne Truscott, Tobi Omoteso, and Sydney Magdalene Magruder Washington in conversation with Dr. Aoife McGrath.

Presented in partnership with Dance Ireland and Galway Dance Project 

Adrienne Truscott

Adrienne Truscott’s work crosses lines and methodologies between dance, theater and performance art; these iterations appear as both drag and club acts as well as evening-length pieces. She’s a 2014 Doris Duke Awardee and a 2017 & 2020 FCA grant recipient for Theater/Performance and one half of the boundary-busting 15 year-plus collaboration The Wau Wau Sisters. THIS and Wild Bore were touring internationally when corona hit. Grey Arias w/Le Gateau Chocolat (UK) and MASTERCLASS w/Brokentalkers (IR) were meant to premiere in 2020 but are postponed until 2021. A new piece about genius and gender is scheduled for 2023 in NYC.

Tobi Omoteso

Tobi Omoteso is an internationally acclaimed Nigerian/Irish B-boy (Breakin’ / Breakdancer) and Hip-Hop Freestyle dancer. Training at Broadway Dance Centre & The birth place of Hip-Hop – New York, Tobi has been dancing for over 15 years and is dedicated to supporting the foundations of this dynamic and influential dance form.

 As a dance facilitator Tobi has designed and delivered youth programmes for Dance Ireland, Dublin Dance Festival, Waterford Youth Art, Lioas Dance Platform, Cork, Tipperary, Take part Carlow and Dance limerick. Teaching in schools, youth groups and established dance organizations, he has brought his knowledge of Hip-Hop and breakin’ into a wide variety of youth and academic contexts.

Sydney Magsalene Magruder Washington

Sydney Magsalene Magruder Washintong is a wife, Dachshund mom, professional ballerina, mental health advocate, and singer living in New York City. At age 11, she was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, followed by subsequent diagnoses of Major Depressive Disorder and Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. She spent much of her childhood and teenage years trying to hide her diseases before she came to a realization – I don’t have to hide. I’m fine the way I am, and my diagnoses don’t make me less than.

She spends most of her time in auditions, classes, and rehearsals, but in her free hours she writes and speak out about living and thriving with mental health issues in the demanding (but beautiful) world of classical ballet.