Vibrate Dance Festival incorporates both the live and recorded presentation of dance and dance companies. It is the culmination of Niamh Condron’s residency in Athlone organised by Roscommon and Westmeath Arts Offices and Sports Partnerships to increase the profile of contemporary dance. The festival offers the opportunity to take part in interactive dance workshops by leading dance professionals as well as seeing performances by companies such as Rex Levitates, Echo Echo, ThisTorsion, Compagnie Osteorock, Junk Ensemble and EnCavale among others. The weekend also incorporates performances by Dublin Youth Dance and Summerhill Youth Dance (Athlone).

Contemporary dance is a natural crossroads between the agendas of arts offices and sports partnerships where a single initiative can stimulate a uniquely creative artform while simultaneously encouraging greater levels of participation in physical activity, especially in young people.

Niamh Condron, artistic director of Vibrate Dance Festival has been working in Roscommon and Westmeath as Dancer in Residence since September 2005. The residency involved an interactive collaboration and partnership between Westmeath and Roscommon County Council Arts Offices and Sports Partnerships who devised a programme for the development of contemporary dance in the greater Athlone and South Roscommon region. The forty-week programme commenced in September 2005 and culminates in the Vibrate dance festival. The experience is part of the nucleus of the development of what will become an annual dance festival alternating every second year between Westmeath and Roscommon that will include site-specific work and theatre performances.