Golden Dance Awards: Ballet Sections, Winners and How to Enter

Irish National Youth Ballet won the ballet award at the Golden Dance Awards Ireland 2026, held at the Grand Hotel in Malahide on 5 September. Two further awards went to ballet teaching: Nicola Farcas took Dance Teacher of the Year, and the Joan Denise Moriarty School of Dance took the Community Engagement Award.

The organiser does not publish a results list. Winners are announced one at a time through interview videos on Instagram, which is why this page exists. Twenty-two awards have been announced so far. Three performer titles, Dancer of the Year, Performing Arts Student of the Year and the Pre-Professional award, had not been announced when this page was last updated on 18 September 2026.

Northern Ireland is a separate ceremony with its own winners, at the Culloden Estate in Holywood, County Down, on 26 September 2026.

What it is

The Golden Dance Awards are multi-genre national dance awards run as separate regional ceremonies. The organiser currently runs Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland, and has said England is coming. Northern Ireland is in its third year and Ireland in its second. A separate global title, Golden Globe Dancer of the Year, is entered directly rather than through a regional ceremony.

It is not a competition in the sense that Dance World Cup or the AD Competition are. Nobody dances a heat. Dancers, teachers, schools and creatives are nominated through a form, finalists are selected and notified by email, and winners are announced at a black-tie evening. The exception is the performer titles, which are decided on a video audition.

Where ballet sits

Ballet is one of thirteen dance style awards, judged in the Dance Style Excellence group alongside jazz, Irish, line, baton, tap, hip hop, cheerleading, acro, contemporary, lyrical, freestyle and other. A ballet school is judged against other ballet entries for that award, not against hip hop.

The performer titles are the ones worth knowing about, because they are open across every style and a ballet dancer can win one outright:

• Dancer of the Year at 9 and under, 13 and under, and 17 and under

• Performing Arts Student of the Year at the same three ages

• Pre-Professional Dancer or Performing Arts Student of the Year at 18 and over

Northern Ireland runs the same structure, with Highland in place of baton in the style list.

Ireland 2026 winners

Nine of the thirteen style awards have been announced. Contemporary, cheerleading, line and other are still to come, along with the three performer titles.

Two notes on the table. Arkins Dance Academy took two titles, Small Dance School of the Year and the jazz style award. The Large Dance School of the Year award carried a second prize of free Dance World Cup entries. Lee Simpson won Dance Photographer of the Year for the second year running.

Northern Ireland 2026

The Northern Ireland ceremony was held on Saturday 26 September 2026 at the Culloden Estate and Spa in Holywood, County Down. It was the third year, and the evening sold out.

School awards

• Large Dance School of the Year: Excel Dance Company. The school also says it won Excellence in Acro for the third year running.

• Medium Dance School of the Year: Naomi Orr School of Dance

• Small Dance School of the Year: Colleen's Dance Company

Dance style excellence

• Jazz: Naomi Orr School of Dance

• Lyrical: Blevins Academy

• Tap: Portadown Dance College

• Irish dance: North Coast Dance Company

• Line dance: Dance Dynamics

Teachers and creatives

• Dance Teacher of the Year: Colleen Marley, Colleen's Dance Company

• Up and Coming Dance Teacher of the Year: Erin O'Hara, Erin's Elite School of Dance

• Choreographer of the Year: Mariona Hawkins, Active Dansa

• Up and Coming Choreographer of the Year: Jessica Ashton, Portadown Dance College

• Dance Assistant of the Year: Chloe Parker, Kaleidoscope Gym Cheer & Dance

• Dance Photographer of the Year: CLP Events

• Dance Costume and Design: The Rhinestone Room

Performers

• Age 17 and Under Dancer of the Year: Amelia Larmour, High Points Youth Ballet

• Age 13 and Under Dancer of the Year: Casey Leigh Corrigan, LM School of Dance

• Age 9 and Under Dancer of the Year: Cole McCullough, Elite Dance Studios NI

• Pre-Professional Dancer and Performing Arts Student of the Year: Clara Devlin, JLM Dance

• Age 17 and Under Performing Arts Student of the Year: Donna Kearney, Flynn Performing Arts

• Age 13 and Under Performing Arts Student of the Year: Charlotte Prentice, Blevins Academy

• Age 9 and Under Performing Arts Student of the Year: Myla McFarland, Excel Dance Company

• Shining Stars Award: Megan Mateer of Naomi Orr School of Dance and Penny Maxwell of Excel Dance Company

• Group Performance of the Year: "Hip Hip Chin Chin" by JMDA (Jennifer Milligan Dance Academy). The prize includes a fee-free performance at Perform Festival in Dublin in January 2027.

Community and lifetime awards

• Lifetime Achievement Award: Rana O'Brien, founder of Rana's School of Ballet and High Points Youth Ballet

• Community Engagement Award: LCDD Hip Hop

• Dance for Wellbeing Award: Ballymagee Primary School

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award: CMAC Creative Arts & Wellbeing

• Dance Parent of the Year: Natasha Cherry, Born to Perform

Northern Ireland 2027 is on Saturday 23 October 2027, again at the Culloden Estate. It will be the fourth year.

How nominations and the video audition work

Nominations are submitted through the official form for the region. Anyone can nominate a dancer, teacher, school, choreographer or volunteer.

The three performer titles work differently, and this is where entries get lost:

• A solo audition video of up to two minutes is required.

• The video is uploaded to Dropbox and emailed to the region, with the performer’s full name, dance or performing arts school, and age category.

• Entries without video are not judged.

• Finalists are notified by email.

Ireland uses info@goldendanceawards.ie and Northern Ireland uses info@danceawardsni.com.

How to enter next year

Both editions open nominations months ahead of the ceremony, and both sold out their 2026 evenings, so the invitation matters as much as the nomination. Ireland ran on the first Saturday of September 2026. Northern Ireland ran on the last Saturday of September 2026 and moves to Saturday 23 October in 2027, so its nomination window is likely to open later than this year's.

Any Golden Dance Awards dates currently listed on Ballet.ie appear at the top of this page. Nomination forms are linked from those listings when they open.