The Dock welcomes Maryam Madani for a dance residency supported by Arts & Disability Connect.
Maryam Madani is an early-career wheelchair dancer with Undercurrent Dance Company since 2023. She came to dance later in life after discovering accessible training opportunities. During her residency, Maryam will be working with mentor Kate Wilson, Director of Undercurrent Dance Company, to develop her practice and unique movement language.
Maryam has performed her solo works-in-progress combining spoken word and wheelchair dance for Disrupt Disability Arts Festival (pictured), St. Patrick’s Festival, and Project Arts Centre. In 2025, she was a participant in the Europe Beyond Access Labs in Rovereto, Italy, and the Disabled Artists’ Lab in Kampnagel International Centre for Finer Arts in Hamburg, Germany. She is also the founder of Disability Power Ireland and the organiser of Ireland’s first Disability Pride Parade and Festival from July 2022—2024. These themes of disability pride and her activism heavily inform her work.
Maryam is a practitioner of Authentic Movement, a therapeutic form of improvised dance which underpins the work of Undercurrent and emphasises movement which arises spontaneously from internal impulses and emotions, rather than trying to force the body to align with choreography not designed for disabled bodies.