1. When did you think about a career in dance and what were your first steps into it?
When I was around 13 or 14 and I made a dance to The Spice Girls' Wannabe for me and my three friends to perform in PE class, complete with diagrams of floor formations.
2. Best gigs you've been to?
Guns N' Roses at Slane, 1992. I got a piggy back all the way to and from the car.
East 17 at Dublin's Point Depot, 1995, with my two besties and my mam. Got a half-day from school and we were the envy of the whole class for about a week.
Break your Face - an ad hoc breakcore/jungle/dub night that used to happen mid-week in Dublin around 2007-08. I did some of my best dancing those nights.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble with The Pogues (late 80s era).
4. The record you would take to a desert island?
Nirvana Incesticide because it gives me energy and makes me happy.
5. And the book you would bring to a desert island?
The Ecstasy of Being by Joseph Campbell - a beautiful collection of essays that reaffirms why I've devoted my life to dancing. Or How to Survive on a Desert Island for Dummies.
6. Top three films?
The NeverEnding Story - childhood favourite (still is). I love the story, the music and the luck dragon.
Inland Empire - it's hard to pick a David Lynch favourite, but I could watch this one every two years. It's a dream-like web of strangeness.
Joker - the scene in the toilet is the best dance I've ever seen on film.
7. Worst film you've seen?
Psychological horror film Hereditary. I was so looking forward to seeing this. It started well, but then it just sort of got lost and tropey attempting to resolve the story.
8. Favourite authors?
Mikhail Bulgakov.
9. Sport you most enjoy and top team?
I don't really watch team sports. I enjoy watching gymnastics during the Olympics and maybe a bit of athletics.
10. Ideal holiday destination?
Driving from west to eastern Russia in a Jeep.
11. Pet hates?
My lifelong battle against the clock and speeding tickets.
12. What's your favourite:
Dinner? Roast anything.
Dessert? Chocolate digestives will do.
Drink? Coffee.
13. Who is your best friend and how do you know each other?
My husband Peter. We met in Longford in 2005, been together since 2007 and finally got married in 2020.
14. Is there a God?
I like to think so... life's more interesting believing that there's a consciousness at work that's greater than we could ever fathom.
:: Birdboy, Emma Martin's production for young people aged eight and over, takes place at Belfast's Lyric Theatre from March 4-6 as part of the Belfast Children's Festival. It tells the story of a boy who wished he was a bird and could just fly away and be free of all his worries. For tickets and full festival programme visit Youngatart.co.uk/festival.
