Our Dublin studio is getting ready to hit the tiles to compete in a charity dance event, 'Animation Come Dancing', with our sure-footed pals in the Irish animation industry.

The event is taking place in aid of Jack and Jill Children's Foundation and Focus Ireland Family Centre as a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ style evening where people from the animation industry, alongside friends and collaborators including various studios and students, will get together and showcase their best moves on the dancefloor to songs from beloved animated movies and shows.

'Animation Come Dancing' is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 7^th 2024 at The Well, Stephen's Green, Dublin from 7pm till late. We have some extra surprises up our sleeves to make a real carnival atmosphere. Tickets are €25, with all funds raised going directly to charity.

We caught up with Charity Committee member, Rossa Lundberg, to share details about the event and how everyone can get involved to help raise funds!

Rossa: The idea for the event came about with our Dublin Charity Committee wanting to organise something big, like the Smithfield Smackdown boxing fundraiser we took part in 2019… but with considerably less bruising involved (hopefully!).

We thought a Come Dancing style competition would be a great option and felt it would be a brilliant opportunity to collaborate with friends and colleagues across the animation studios in Ireland. I'm delighted to say that Brown Bag Films are supporting the event and will be coming on board as a sponsor, but we would love this to be a bigger event that welcomes everyone; it's all about raising money for charity and having a good time.

We wanted to support two causes that are dear to our hearts, the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation and Focus Ireland Family Centre.

We selected Jack and Jill Children's Foundation as they do incredible work for children in Ireland; a good friend of mine who works in the industry told me how great they are and how special the work they do is, and this felt like a great opportunity to help support their efforts.

“We are currently caring for 92 littles ones in Dublin and 405 across Ireland and your support truly makes a difference to these families. Every €18 raised will provide an hour’s specialist home nursing care for a Jack & Jill family locally.”

—Mary Carter, Fundraising Administrator, Jack and Jill Children's Foundation

We also wanted to support Focus Ireland Family Centre as the figures for families currently experiencing homelessness in Ireland—approx. 12,441, of which over 3,400 are children—is simply staggering. There are currently 1,770 families living in emergency accommodation in Ireland. The Focus Ireland Family Centre provide food, laundry facilities and practical support to move people onto long-term accommodation.

“With the homelessness figures reaching levels that had previously never been seen in Ireland, this has meant that more and more families have been coming into Focus Ireland’s Family Centre to avail of our services.”

—Kieran McCarthy, Corporate Fundraising Officer, Focus Ireland Family Centre

We’re hoping to raise as much money as possible for these two charities, host a great night, and further strengthen the bonds within our industry while also improving our fancy footwork!

There are a range of ways you can support the event, from sponsorship (please contact animationcomedancing@gmail.com for sponsorship details), to taking to the dance floor yourself! Or coming along on the night, donating raffle prizes, and we are also encouraging people to make a donation online via our iDonate funding page: iDonate.ie | Support Animation Community Ireland Fundraising

After putting a call-out for entrants with the support of Animation Ireland, who are also taking part, we are delighted to have the following studios involved alongside ourselves so far: Boulder Media, Lighthouse Studios, Kavaleer, Maverick Films, National Talent Academies, Cultural and Creative Industries Skillnet and Jam Media.

Sign-up for participation is open until the start of February and we are currently looking for more dazzling dancers from anywhere in the animation industry to take part as entrants (all skill levels are welcome!), and also dance teachers and choreographers to help us put our best feet forward!

Tickets to attend the event can be purchased here: Animation Come Dancing! | Eventbrite

Stay posted for more updates and news regarding Animation Come Dancing across our social channels in the coming weeks!