About Shannon
Shannon Dunne is an acclaimed sean-nós dancer, concertina player, singer, community organizer, actor, and educator.
She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1998, earning a degree in History with a concentration in Medieval Studies and a focus on photography. She was a member of the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, and a psalmist and cantor at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Following graduation, she moved to Dallas, Texas where she worked as a photographer at Gittings Portrait Studio, focusing on portraiture and documenting the Dallas debutante season.
She then moved to Washington, D.C. where she returned to the performing arts, working as an actress, dancer, and singer. As an actor, her theater credits include Rosslyn Spectrum, Scena Theater, Theater Alliance, Cherry Red Productions, Source Theater, Carter Barron Amphitheater, DCAC, Capital Fringe, Reston Players, Elden Street Players, and Momentum Dance Theater. For 3 yeas, she was a company member of Award-Winning Synetic Theater, a theater company committed to a unique brand of physical theater, and was nominated as “Best Lead Actress in a Musical” for her work as Janet, in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (Elden Street Players). She worked closely in improvisation and multigenerational dance making with members of the Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange and creating work for the Capital Fringe and DCJCC with poet Carly Sachs. Film/TV credits include History Channel, Discovery Channel, as well as numerous industrials, and student films .
During this time, she began studying traditional Irish music and dance, and her work with master sean-nós dancers such as Seosamh o’Neachtain, Róisín Ní Mhainín, Pádraig Ó hOibicín, Gearóid and Patrick Devane, Mick Mulkerrin, Mairead Casey, and Aidan Vaughan has given her intimate access to the tight-knit Connemara dance community and has afforded her a place among the top sean-nós dancers in North America. In an effort to best understand the Connemara Style, she branched out to study other Irish styles as well, learning from Aidan Vaughan (Clare Battering), Mairtin de Cogain, Jim Keenan and Padraig MacEneany (set dancing), and Patrick o’Dea and Michael Tubridy (old style step).
In Irish culture, in order to learn to dance you must also learn the music and vice versa. Shannon is a great example of this adage, as her study and performance of music is interwoven with her dance journey. Her music focus has always been centered on creating music that is good for dancers. Her main Irish music influences are from time spent playing and performing with the musicians in the Baltimore-DC area, namely Brendan Mulvihill, Billy and Sean McComiskey, Peter Brice, Patrick Cavanagh, Josh Dukes, as well as Clare concertina players Gearoid O’hAllmhurain, Tim Collins. But she was also heavily influenced by time spent with musicians exploring traditional music from an improvisational space, namely Cleek Schrey, Graham DeZarn, Stuart Jackson, and old-time musician Danny Knicely.
The Washington Post called her dancing, "Playful musicality! Spirited and fun!" and she was a qualifier for the All Ireland Fleadh in 2017, as MidAtlantic Champion. Shannon's talents and abilities have been recognized by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has performed as a soloist at NY Symphony Space, the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Discovery Theater, National Theater, and ICONS Festival, sharing the stage with such prestigious acts as the Green Fields of America, Celtic Appalachia, Trían, Liz Carol, Kevin Doyle, Billy McComiskey and Friends, the Teetotalers, Flook, and Cherish the Ladies. She was the principal dancer for Boston-based group Childsplay for 2 years alongside Nic Gareiss and Molly Gawler, touring the Northeast. Her Irish music and dance group, Kitchen Quartet appeared regularly at festivals, and she was a multi-year collaborator with Grammy Award Nominee, Christylez Bacon, and his Washington Sound Museum.
From 2005-2010 she was a principal dancer and choreographer with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, performing at festivals and performing arts centers across the United States, with the standout performance opening for Del McCoury Band at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Founded by members of the Green Grass Cloggers, Shannon performed various styles from the American South, alongside Eileen Carson Schatz, Mark Schatz, Christine Galante, Megan Downes, Matthew Gordon, and Amy Fenton Shine. She also performed styles from Canada, England, and South Africa. Time not performing was spent exploring the festivals throughout North Carolina and Tennessee in an effort to absorb and fine tune her clogging and flatfooting. In 2009 she toured Scotland with The Hot Seats, including performances at the globally renowned Shetland Folk Festival.
In 2014, she was the featured tradition bearer for the Washington Christmas Revels, at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. In addition to being a featured soloist, she had the opportunity to choreograph highly technical small group choreography and large-scale traditional dance performance sequences for the chorus. In 2017 she returned to the Christmas Revels, this time to work alongside Quebecois dance master Pierre Chartrand. This opportunity both allowed her the opportunity to learn and absorb the Quebecois style, and opened the door for an invitation to teach as part of ZØGMA Collectif de Folklore Urbain percussive dance retreat for professional percussive dancers from across Canada.
In 2016 she released "The Connemara Stockings", an instructional dance DVD and a CD of music to accompany the dance. In 2019, her duo Sineadh Fada (with All-Ireland multi-instrumentalist Alex Boatright) released "Won't You Stay for Tea?" which features Shannon's dancing and singing. The album is said to be "One to check out if you love the pure drop!" (Dan Neely, Irish Echo).
Shannon is a much sought after teacher and instructor of traditional dance and music, and has been brought all over North America to share dance and music. Her pedagogy and programs are heavily influenced by the Reggio Emilia Approach, the work of Liz Lerman, and her time spent in small, rural dance/music communities in Ireland, North Carolina, and Virginia.
She has served on the teaching staff of Catskills Irish Arts Week (concertina), Augusta Irish Arts Week, Francis O’Neill Irish Arts Week Swannanoa Gathering, ICONS Festival, ZØGMA Collectif de Folklore Urbain Dance Retreat, Spring Rain Festival (Ottawa, Canada), Irish Fest Atlanta (sean-nós and set dancing).
Her multigenerational dance company, Shannon Dunne Dance, specializes in instruction in Irish traditional dance forms in a manner that leads dancers to skills via the intent and use of the forms themselves within the greater community. Shannon is the first dancer to create a comprehensive, holistic sean-nós dance curriculum for ages 3-adult, and her dancers have many titles and commendations to their name, including multiple MidAtlantic Champions, 2 All-Ireland medalists and 1 All-Ireland adjudicators special commendation.
She is a successful community builder, creating Shannon Dunne Dance, Camp Shenanigans, The Virtual Woodshed, and the Dance Transformation, and has consulted with Phoenix Irish Arts. She was the founder of the MAD Week Dance Program in Washington DC, and served as Director before leaving as a means to draw attention to the systemic sexism rampant in that community.
She returned to the University of Notre Dame in 2021, singing with the Basilica Schola and Collegium, while devising and teaching courses and programs for the Department of Irish Language and Literature (Irish Social Dance, Sean-nós Dance, Tin Whistle and Céilí Band). Ever the community builder, she collaborated with the Notre Dame St Mary’s Step Dance Club and the Irish Cultural Club to start a regular on-campus céilí, bringing together the Irish campus community for 4 dances a year. Dance attendance has grown over 2 years from 98 at the initial event to over 300 people.
She founded the Notre Dame Céilí Band, a 32 member ensemble that is dedicated to the performance and practice of traditional Irish music both on and off campus. The band not only provides music for the céilís, but hosts on-campus sessions, pop-ups, and tailgate events. The band also hosts community outreach events at local South Bend pub, Fiddler’s Hearth.
The band is heavily influenced by time spent in Ireland with Brendan Mulvihill and the Kilfenora Céilí Band, Ireland’s Oldest Céilí Band, as well as dancers Gerard Butler and Aidan Vaughan. The trip was designed as an immersive experience for the students, as a means to ensure that they were offering quality, traditional experiences on campus and mindfully building a campus community that was getting the pure drop Irish culture.
Knowing the power of to uplift and connect, she proposed, devised, and taught a 3-credit Irish music class to be taught at the Westville Correctional Facility, through the Moreau College Initiative (MCI). The Moreau College Initiative (MCI) is an academic collaboration between Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame, in partnership with the Indiana Department of Correction, where incarcerated students can earn credits towards a Holy Cross College Associate of Arts (AA) degree or Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
The class used the tin whistle as a means to study basic music theory, Irish culture, and Irish music performance. This was the first time a music class had been permitted at MCI, and has now grown to include a weekly class as well as a weekly session for the community of musicians (3 fiddle players, 4 banjo players, multiple whistle players, a concertina player, 2 guitarists, singers, and two percussionists). The program has now inspired other music initiatives as well, such as the song writing and a student led gospel music choir.
When she isn’t running all over hells half-acre, she loves to spend time with her family, particularly if there is an ocean nearby: her parents and her sister who have always been patient, flexible and supportive, her spectacular and joyous cousins and aunts and uncles, and her 3 besties: niece, artist, and “High Priestess”, Maeve, nephew, pretend office mate, and Partner in Dramatic Crime, Connor, and the Best Travel Buddy and Son Ever, Jack.
