Teacher Bio: Dawn Daniels

Dawn has had a love for her ancestral Ireland since she was eight years old, avidly studying its arts, history and culture. She learned Irish dance at the Irish Arts Center under the direction of Josephine McNamara for three years, and continued to study dance under Niall O’Leary for an additional seven years. During that time, she danced on the championship ceili team that placed fourth at the North American Irish Dance Championships, and competed annually in the Eastern Regional Championships.

As the Noble Maritime Collection’s Director of Programs, Dawn created and choreographed the Irish dance concert, Harbordance, which sold out both years it was performed in the museum’s concert hall. She went on to create its arts-in-education counterpart, Annie’s Journey to America, which teaches school children all over the boroughs of New York about immigration. In 2006, Dawn won the Council on the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island’s (COAHSI) Junefest Folk Arts Award, and in 2011 received a grant from JP Morgan Chase to create Voice of the Storyteller, an Irish dance and folklore show presented at Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

Dawn is the owner of Forest Haven Center for Dance and Music, a studio for the arts on Staten Island. She is raising a eight year old Irish dancer named Brendan, and is proud to be teaching with the Niall O’Leary School of Irish Dance.