Dunshaughlin dancers shine on World Cup Finals stage

Holly Alder

Published: Wed 29 Jul 2026, 4:17 PM

Dunshaughlin Dance has celebrated a major international achievement after 60 of its students took to the world stage at the 2026 Dance World Cup Finals in Dublin.

Held at the Convention Centre Dublin earlier this month, the competition brought together 11,500 dancers from across the world, with dancers from Dunshaughlin Dance finishing in the top 25 per cent of the competition.

The school's highest-placed dancer was Ratoath's Hayley Waters, who finished an impressive seventh overall for her hip hop solo.

Students from Dunshaughlin Dance with founder Zoë Koulianou and teacher (front row bottom left) outside of the 3Arena.

Founder and director of Dunshaughlin Dance, Zoë Koulianou, said the results had surpassed expectations for the school, which was competing at an event of this scale for the first time. "We were in the top 20 for every category that we entered, which was incredible. We didn't expect to win. It was the first time we entered something of this scale, so to even make the top 20 we were really shocked because of how many dancers were in the categories.

“Ireland ranked fifth in the world, too, which was amazing."

One of Dunshaughlin Dance teams performing at the Dance World Cup in at the Convention Centre in Dublin.

The dancers representing the school ranged in age from eight to 22, with four different teams taking part alongside a number of soloists. The school competed mainly in the hip hop and contemporary categories.

"Most of our students who entered are from Dunshaughlin while we also have some dancers from Ratoath and Ashbourne," Zoe explains.

Dunshaughlin Dance was founded by Zoë in 2019, with the dance school director having lived in the town for the past 10 years.

Zoë played a key role in preparing the dancers for the competition, choreographing all of the solos entered by the school and joining the choreography team for the dance crews.

"I choreographed all of the solos for the competition and I was on the choreography team for the dance crews who entered the World Cup. The choreographers who teach at the school and that helped choreograph the competition were Olwyn Lyons from Batterstown, Skye Carr from Dublin and Molly Muldoon from Navan, but in total we have nine teachers at the school."