Twenty-Three year old Galway native, AnneMarie, started dancing at the age of four, following in the footsteps of her sister, Rachel, and her famous brothers, Fergal and Cathal, who are current leads in Michael Flatley’s Lord of The Dance. She danced for the world renowned Hession School of Irish Dance in Galway, made famous by none other than Celine Hession, with her legacy still living on through her daughter Gemma Carney. In addition to winning three back-to-back Connacht Championship titles, AnneMarie has achieved top rankings in all the major international competitions; placing 2nd in the British Nationals, 2nd in the Irish Nationals, 3rd in the European Championships and 5th in the North American Nationals. She has also won numerous All Ireland and World Championship medals. AnneMarie is a team player and has also won the Connachts, All Scotlands, and placed 3rd in the World with her Senior Mixed Ceili team in 2016.
Since retiring from competitive dancing she has graduated from the National University of Ireland Galway, majoring in Psychology and IT, followed by a Masters in Psychology in the University of Limerick. AnneMarie was also the dance teacher and choreographer in NUIG’s dance society (Dansoc NUIG) and choreographed and performed in a jaw dropping performance for the All Ireland Intervarsity Championships. After completing college she then set her sights on passing her TCRG exam, an exam which entitles her to teach Irish Dancing to younger generations under the Commission Organisation of Irish Dancing and qualified as an Irish Dancing teacher in 2017.
AnneMarie now spends her time teaching full time with the Hession School of Irish Dance in Galway and has taught numerous World Championship dancers. She also travels around the world dancing at many different events, functions and shows. She performs with the renowned number one music, song and dance show in Ireland, Trad on the Prom, every summer in Galway since 2009 to present. She also travels to Denmark with the show for their yearly performance of the show every year since 2016 to present.
She performed alongside Carmel Dempsey and Band in the St Patricks’s Festival op Vlaamse Wijze in Brussels in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She also hosted Irish Dance workshops on each occasion. She has performed in Creative Connexions Sitges Live Festival d’Arts in 2017 and 2018 in Sitges Spain. Hosting Irish Dance workshops again on each occasion.
In January 2018 she performed at the Cycle Against Suicide event in the 3 Arena Dublin. Following that, she performed in Cologne with the German group HÖHNER to close the Prinzen Proklamation Köln Carnival 2018.
She performed on the Joanie Madden’s world famous Folk ‘n Irish Cruise of the Caribbean in February 2018, and Bermuda in May 2019. AnneMarie also guest performed on some of the Irish dates of Cherish the Ladies Heart of the Home tour in 2018. She joined Cherish the Ladies again in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow for their sell out show at Celtic Connections in January 2019, and again for their the Fleadh Cheoil headlining concert, and Fleadh TV performance in August 2019.
AnneMarie is also the leading lady in the show Velocity. She performed with Velocity at the sell out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017 and most recently in The New Victory Theatre in Broadway New York in November 2018.
