Jackie O’Riley

Jackie O’Riley spent her formative dance years in the Irish set dancing community in Boston, MA. Over the past two decades, she has ardently sought out old-style step, sean-nós, and set dancing and is now a respected performer and teacher, with a unique repertoire that includes older steps she’s collected from masters and field footage, and original material she’s composed. Jackie performs and teaches in the US, Canada, and Ireland, was an original member of the touring sean-nós dance show Atlantic Steps, and in 2018 performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin as part of Na Píobairí Uilleann’s production, “The Sound of Ireland”. In 2023 she was the first dancer, and American, to take part in the Irish Traditional Music Archive’s “Saothar” (composer) series.  She founded, directs, and teaches O’Riley Irish Dance, a unique, non-competitive dance program for kids and teens based in Cambridge/Watertown, now in its 15th year, and was a 2022 co-recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s Choreography Fellowship. In 2019 she co-released a debut, first-of-its-kind “visual album”, From the Floor. Above all, she believes in prioritizing musicality in dancing, being a part of the wider musical and traditional community, and maintaining the joy that drew her to the tradition in the first place.