How Take Flight Is Bringing International Dance Training to Dublin
Ireland is not always viewed as a major destination for international dance training. Through Take Flight, however, Dublin has increasingly become a place where dancers and educators from different countries come together, not simply for a single class, but for immersive, multi-day training experiences shaped by global faculty and a distinctly Irish creative community.
At the center of that work is Kerrie Milne, a Dublin-based choreographer, educator, and director whose career has connected local dance training with international stages, studios, and conventions. Take Flight’s model is not only about sending Irish talent abroad. It is also about bringing international artists, perspectives, and training cultures into Dublin.
Dublin as a Creative Meeting Point
Take Flight was developed as an Ireland-based platform with an international outlook. Its events have consistently positioned Dublin as the host city for intensive dance training, creating opportunities for local dancers to learn alongside visiting artists and participants from outside Ireland.
The format is significant. Rather than operating solely as a touring workshop series, Take Flight has built flagship experiences in Dublin that encourage dancers to stay, train, collaborate, and immerse themselves in a larger artistic environment. Its Easter Immersion has been described as a four-day training experience focused on personal and artistic development, while its Halloween Intensive has been presented as a multi-day programme bringing together dance, music, community, and education.
That structure turns Dublin into more than a stop on someone else’s itinerary. It creates a destination event, one where dancers can plan a trip around the experience, rather than attending a single evening class before moving on to the next city.
The Value of Visiting Artists
When dancers and teachers travel to Dublin for Take Flight, they bring more than choreography. They bring the training habits, creative references, professional expectations, and cultural perspectives developed in their own dance communities.
For Dublin-based dancers, that exchange can be especially valuable. International travel is not equally available to every young dancer, and attending major conventions or classes abroad can require considerable time and financial resources. A local intensive with artists from multiple countries gives dancers access to a wider range of influences without requiring them to leave Ireland.
Take Flight’s 2025 UNLOCK’D intensive, for example, listed faculty from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Ireland. The four-day Dublin programme included artists such as Amari Marshall, Caetlyn Watson, Kapela, Sergio Reis, Jaja Vankova, Jeka, Kerrie Milne, and Zacc Milne.
That diversity changes the learning environment. A dancer may encounter different approaches to musicality, movement quality, performance, freestyle, choreography, discipline, and artistic identity, all within the same programme.
A Two-Way Exchange
The exchange does not end when the visiting artists leave Dublin. The ideas, standards, and relationships developed during these events remain within the local dance community through the dancers, teachers, and studios that continue working year-round.
Fly Dance Studio, the Dublin studio associated with Kerrie and Zacc Milne, provides a continuing base for that development. Rather than presenting international training as a rare or isolated experience, the wider Fly and Take Flight ecosystem gives dancers a place to apply what they have learned through weekly classes, crews, rehearsals, and performance opportunities.
This is where visiting artists can have a lasting effect. A dancer who trains beside someone from another country may return to regular classes with a broader sense of what is possible. They may become more confident in unfamiliar choreography, more comfortable receiving feedback, or more motivated to pursue workshops, auditions, and future international opportunities.
The benefit is also professional. Visiting faculty can introduce Dublin dancers to the level of preparation expected in competitive, commercial, and convention-based dance settings. That exposure helps close the distance between a local studio environment and the realities of a wider industry.
A Brand That Travels
Take Flight has shown that its community and teaching approach can travel beyond Ireland. The organization has held tour activity in cities such as Paris, with a 2022 Take Flight Tour program featuring choreography by Kerrie Milne. More recently, Take Flight announced an international “One Day or Day One” tour spanning Hong Kong, Sydney, Amsterdam, Krakow, London, New York, and Los Angeles, with the campaign framed as a global journey that returns home to Dublin for the organization’s 10-year anniversary.
That outward movement matters because it places Irish-led dance education in conversation with other major dance communities. Yet the continued emphasis on Dublin is equally important. Take Flight’s 2026 intensive is scheduled in Dublin from 26 to 30 October, reinforcing the city’s role as the platform’s central gathering place.
The message is clear: Take Flight can tour internationally, but Dublin remains its foundation.
What Dublin Gains
The impact of this model reaches beyond one event or one studio. It gives Dublin dancers greater proximity to international artists, creates meaningful cultural exchange, and contributes to a stronger sense of Ireland as a place where serious dance training can happen.
For local dancers, the value may be practical: access to high-level faculty without the cost of overseas travel. For visiting artists, it is the opportunity to meet a committed dance community with its own identity, energy, and creative ambition. For Ireland’s dance scene, it is a gradual shift in perception.
Take Flight demonstrates that a dance destination need not be one of the cities traditionally associated with the industry. It can be built through consistency, relationships, quality education, and a community willing to make space for the world to come in.
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