St Paul’s Secondary School (Brunner)

With a specific focus on dance and rap in 2024 we were delighted to have artists Oluwatobiloba Balogun (Tobi) and Jafaris engage with St Paul’s (Brunner) Secondary School.

Tobi Balogun is a Multidisciplinary Artist, working across Dance, Theatre, Voice and Design. His work focuses on cultural sustainability and the exploration of Black masculinity. In 2020 he received a Create Bursary to develop phase one of BLACK CANVAS – an R&D project examining the experiences of Black-Irish creatives and communities. Work emerging from this included curatorial residencies in Dance Ireland (MoveMEANT 2022/23), LIBERTY VIBES – an event supported by DCC Local Live Performance, and NATIVES as part of Culture Night (2022). His work is funded by the Arts Council and has been supported through residencies at Dance Ireland (2020-2024),  Photo Ireland (2023), Project Arts Centre (2023) and Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris 2024).

In 2023 he worked with Theatre Company Brokentalkers, as a performer in ‘Manifest’ (Project Arts Centre) and performed in John Scott’s ‘Dancer from the Dance Festival’ 2022/23. In 2022 he choreographed and performed JUXTA for Project Arts Centre’s Open Day.  As a choreographer and movement director he worked with Theatre Maker Louise White, Poet Felispeaks and with music artists Jafaris, Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran among others.

With a background in Street Dance he has won International competitions and has developed youth projects in association with artists Cathy Coughlan, Maria Nilsson Waller and with organisations such as South Dublin County Council, Tallaght Community Arts, Dublin City Council, CoisCeim Dance Theatre Broadreach, Project Arts Centre and Dance Ireland.

Over the last 5 years Tobi has established himself as a new voice in Irish clothing, creating bespoke pieces for specific events and commercial video work, as well as made to order designs for his own clothing line and ongoing project – WAHALA.

We had a very special guest as part of our Project Schools Residency Programme – Huge thanks to Jafaris, who came in for two days to facilitate the students who are writing their own work, as part of a project called ‘My Dublin’. It was A LOT of fun!

Jafaris is a Dublin based multidisciplinary artist. In 2019 he received critical praise for his debut album STRIDE – nominated for RTÉ Choice Music Award’s Album of the Year. Musically he has collaborated with Joy Crookes, Saint Sister, Denise Chaila & more recently Sweetlemondae.

Before he emerged as a musician, dance was his artistic focus. It was through a dance audition that he landed the role of Ngig in the 2016 Irish film ‘Sing Street’ by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Carney. He was also cast in the screen adaptation of ‘Conversations with Friends’ by Sally Rooney in 2022.

He has played every major music festival including the main stage at Longitude, & Electric Picnic with the RTÉ Orchestra. He has also performed on the Late Late Show, Other Voices & Later with Jools Holland.

In January 2024 he was announced as AIR at Dublin Fringe Festival, where his primary interest is around bringing his community together & in creating space for play, experimentation and artistic growth.

Matt Szczerek is a Dublin-based dance artist and professional member of Dance Ireland. His recent work includes a Digital RSS Commission 2021 in The Civic as a lead artist, choreography for dance/circus production Blame Game, which premiered at Bristol Circus City in October 2021 and is planned for touring in 2023. From 2018 – 2023 Matt was the Artistic Director of Dance2Connect Festival, a 3-day Street Dance event at The Civic supported by Arts Council Festival funding.

Matt is currently Artistic Director of Human Collective, a Dublin-based dance company and Kundle Cru, a company made up of international circus and dance practitioners.

In May 2023 Matt worked with Transition Year boys at St Paul’s Secondary School (Brunner).

Shaun Dunne is a Dublin-based theatre and film artist who merges testimony and documentary material with new writing. A performer and a writer, Dunne is most interested in new work that speaks to the now. He would describe his practice as a stylised translation of lived experience – which often includes his own. Community participation is a huge part of Dunne’s work and he collaborates regularly with Talking Shop Ensemble. A trained drama facilitator, Dunne also works with responsibility to the Children’s Council at The Ark.

So far in 2020, Shaun has presented Restoration in the Space Upstairs at Project Arts Centre. Directed by Darren Thornton, the work has hopes to tour across 2021.

In recent months, he has collaborated with the Abbey Theatre for Dear Ireland and with the Bush Theatre in London for their Monday Monologues series. “Beds” was directed by Lynette Linton and stars Paddy Gibson. It can be viewed here.

In 2019, Shaun premiered his first short film, “The First was a Boy” at Dublin International Film Festival. Here, it was awarded the Judge’s Special Mention for Irish Short. It later screened at Cork Film Festival where it received the Honorable Mention for The Grand Prix Documentary Short Award.

In 2020,  Shaun returned to DIFF with his second short film, “Iarscoláire (Past Pupil). This film was awarded The Audience Choice Award for Short Film and later screened at the Galway Film Fleadh.

Other film work in 2020 included “Dúirt Tú (you said)” with One Two One Two for Project Arts Centre’s Future Forecast series.  Previous theatre projects include the multi-award-winning “Death of the Tradesmen”, “Advocacy”, “Making a Mark” and “Rapids”.

In 2021, Shaun will develop new theatre work with Talking Shop Ensemble and he will also premiere an Irish language adaptation of Carmen at the Abbey Theatre with One Two One Two.

In film, he is currently developing a feature-length adaptation of his theatre production Rapids, in collaboration with Invisible Thread Films and Robbie Lawlor.

Shaun is currently resident at the Ark and Project Arts Centre. He is the Arts Council’s Next Generation Film Artist for 2020.