Jessica Kennedy - Junk Ensemble Artistic Director/Creator. Jessica is an award-winning choreographer, movement director and dance artist based in Dublin. She is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Junk Ensemble, an internationally acclaimed & leading Irish dance-theatre company. Jessica trained in the United States, Dublin and London, completing a Bachelors Degree in Dance & English Literature in London. She has performed extensively with dance and theatre companies throughout Europe and the U.K. including Blast Theory (UK), Retina Dance Company (UK), Tanz Lange (Germany), Firefly Productions (Belgium). Jessica has choreographed & collaborated on numerous international opera, theatre, dance & visual art productions and has worked regularly in Scotland as a movement director for productions with The Tron (Glasgow/Beiing). She has both performed in and choreographed for numerous short and feature films in Ireland, and also works as an intimacy coordinator for film. Jessica co-created the multi-award winning short film Motion Sickness which has screened across festivals worldwide and was awarded Best Female Performer for Dublin Fringe Festival 2006. She has lectured at various universities in Ireland and is part of an all-female experimental electronica group ‘Everything Shook’.

Megan Kennedy - Junk Ensemble Artistic Director/Creator. Megan trained at Alvin Ailey Dance Center in New York City and received a B.A. Honours from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Megan is Co-Artistic Director of multi-award winning Junk Ensemble, previous resident artists at The Tate and creators of Dances Like a Bomb and Powerful Trouble. Choreography for live performance includes The Last Return (Druid Theatre), Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre, dir: Caroline Byrne), Red Lines (Dublin Fringe), What Did I Miss (The Ark, dir: Sean Dunne), Fleeting (Seve Feathers, dir: Megan Kennedy), Gym Swim Party (O’Reilly Theatre Dublin), Villette (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Town is Dead (The Abbey Theatre), Tasting Blue (Live Collision), Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades Opera (Edinburgh Festival Theatre), Marble & Bread (Dance Limerick).

For film, choreography and performance include Wildfire (Samson Films/dir: Cathy Brady), It Is In Us All (dir: Antonia Campbell Hughes), The Tower (dir: Jesse Jones), In Velvet & Fallow Table (Junk Ensemble), 6SKIN (dir: Alice Maher & Aideen Barry), Five Letters to the Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain (dir: Oonagh Kearney), The Wake (dir: Oonagh Kearney), Óiche Nollaig na mBan (RTÉ), Wonder House (Dublin Film Festival), Her Mother’s Daughters (Winner Best Actress Capalbio Festival Italy/dir: Oonagh Kearney). Megan has performed with Retina Dance Company (UK), Brokentalkers (The Blue Boy, On This One Night) (IRL), CoisCéim Dance Theatre (Faun, As You Are) (IRL), The Abbey Theatre (Romeo & Juliet) (IRL), Loosysmokes Aerial Company (IRL), Tanz Lange (Germany), Blast Theory (UK), Bedrock Productions (IRL) and productions for The Ark and The Pavilion (IRL). She is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.

Gwen Van Spijk - Producer for Junk Ensemble. Gwen is a Producer, Consultant, Trainer and Mentor working across the full breadth of the live performance sector. After working in the commercial sector in the USA and UK, Gwen moved into arts management. She was Administrative Director for Motionhouse Dance Theatre 1992 - 1997 after which she embarked on a career as an independent working with artists including: Russell Maliphant, Carol Brown, Rosemary Butcher and Nigel Charnock as their manager and project and/or tour producer. Gwen currently has ongoing roles as Executive Director of Lone Twin for whom she produced The Boat Project, one of the highlights of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad; asProducer for New Art Club; and since Sept 2017 she has been working in a Producer role with Junk Ensemble. To complement her work as a producer Gwen has undertaken consultancy projects for clients including: Marketing Gloucester, Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales and South East Dance; fulfilled advisory strategic and business development work for Company Chameleon, Wired Aerial Theatre and Yorke Dance Project; delivered training in arts management; and lectured on cultural policy and management at the Universities of Falmouth, Surrey and Coventry. Gwen is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Mill Arts Centre and has previously held the post of Chair of the Board for Dance 4 (1998 – 2005) and also Stan’s Café Theatre (1999 - 2005).

Ciara Lynch - Associate Producer for Junk Ensemble. Ciara is a Creative Producer with a history in dance and particular passion for inclusive arts practices. Her producing portfolio includes projects for small- and large-scale theatres as well as participatory work, touring productions, festivals and films. Ciara is currently Producer of Digital Stage & Studio at Sadler’s Wells, one of the world’s leading dance organisations where she works with globally renowned choreographers such as Akram Khan, Crystal Pite, Aditi Mangaldas as well as multi-scale participatory projects with local communities. As a freelancer, Ciara has produced dance productions for Dance Umbrella Festival, Victoria & Albert Museum, Becky Namgauds amongst others. Ciara is delighted to join Junk Ensemble as Associate Producer for the remount of Dolores in 2024.

Ciara originally trained as a contemporary dancer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London. She later went on to gain an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy at Goldsmiths University with a major in Disability Theatre.
Inclusivity and collaboration are at the heart of her producing practice. Whether in commercial or subsidised spheres, her goals are to increase access to the arts, support artists and to inspire audiences and communities worldwide with dance.