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WATCH Bethany Hayes is soaring to new heights at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre
Bethany Hayes is soaring to new heights at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre. Irish Aerial Creation Centre 10th anniversary. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick
As the Irish Aerial Creation Centre celebrates 10 years of creativity, artists like Bethany Hayes are taking their creativity to new heights with the company
The Irish Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick is celebrating a decade of artistic innovation, community projects, and life-changing opportunities with aerial artists and teachers such as Bethany Hayes whose journey reflects the spirit of the organisation.
Bethany’s path in dance and performance arts began locally through her studies at the Irish World Academy at University of Limerick, where during her degree she took part in an aerial dance module which she says changed her life.
Bethany told I Love Limerick, “ I spent four years at the Irish World Academy, and during those four years I took a module, which was aerial dance, and that’s how I started. I ended up doing my co-op here, so that was my work placement, and I just trained. I got the best support from my mentors Sara and Chantel, and I just flourished here, which was amazing. And I am now a teacher here.”
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Starting her aerial performing journey in 2020, which included a break during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bethany has enjoyed the five-year journey to where she is now, saying, “ I teach quite a lot and we have just started a new project with the deaf school in Limerick, and I’m now head choreographer for that project, so I have a big journey here. It’s an amazing place to work.”
She explained how aerial dance transformed her life and career, “ From when I was a little girl, it was Irish dance. I wanted to be in Riverdance. I wanted to do all those different things, and then I just fell in love with it. It was a whole different part of moving that I didn’t know I could even attempt to do!”
Bethany says her journey to aerial dance can prove a motivation for others, saying, “It just shows that you can start in your twenties and still make a career out of it. I made this huge change, and I’m really proud of myself, but it’s the guys that I have to thank the most, like this amazing place.”
The performer and teacher says Irish Aerial Creation Centre “changed my life,” adding, “And it’s just given me so many opportunities over the past few years to do amazing things. I performed with Sara at Riverfest, and we flew together so many times. They introduced me to Crane Flying and now the Deaf School Project as well, which is such an amazing and rewarding process to be a part of, and we’ve only just gotten started, so I’m so excited to see the end product of that.”
The Irish Aerial Creation Centre is based in the Old Burlington Industrial Estate, Gillogue, Corbally, and is the first and only purpose-built aerial dance centre anywhere in Ireland, and has more than 625 square meters of space dedicated to nurturing dancers, young and old.
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