Lisa Cliffe is a contemporary dance artist, movement facilitator and educator. Formerly a primary teacher, she holds an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick (2010). In 2015, Lisa received a certificate of attendance from ‘Origins’, a somatic movement and therapy training delivered by Joan Davis.

Lisa was a participating artist on the ‘Virtually There’ project (2016 – 2020) managed by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. This project was a long-term artist-in-residence programme, which connected and supported engagement between practicing artists, children and teachers in Northern Ireland through virtual communication.

From 2014 to 2016 she was Dance Artist in Residence at the Froebel Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education at Maynooth University. In 2016 & 2018 Lisa received bursary awards from the Arts Council to support her research in somatic practices in education contexts.

The methodologies of Lisa’s practice include walking, writing, somatic-based embodiment practices, engagement with natural materials and everyday objects to create movement structures. At the heart of Lisa’s creative practice is the quality of attention and felt sensation that she brings to place based, experiential, sensorial, somatic and creative processes.

Lisa has developed a large portfolio of collaborative work in a broad range of professional, educational and community contexts. In 2012, she co-founded Spoken Dance, an integrated contemporary dance company. She directed a number of short dance films with this company, including ‘two’ which was selected for the 2015 Light Moves Festival of Screendance.