Dance
Meet Demi Moran, the Irish Red Bull Dance Your Style National Finalist
“I never expected it to happen to me”
How does a 20-year-old dancer from Donaghmede, whose formative competition years were halted by the pandemic, come to compete against the biggest forces in modern dance? When it comes to Demi Moran, the Red Bull Dance Your Style Irish champion, the secret formula is determination, modesty and a lifetime spent in the studio. “I probably started dancing when I was 4 or 5,” she smiles, just days before the global final. (Naturally enough, she’s speaking from the hallowed halls of her studio.) “I started out in stage school and stayed there until I was 12. But at the time, my brother was such a big influence on me. So, when I saw him hip-hop dancing, that was it. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever, so I had to get involved.”
“Going into it, I was just so focused on dancing in a way that showed I was enjoying myself, because at these things, you have experts in dance, but also people who don’t know too much about dancing styles. So I just wanted to show people that I was having fun, because that’s the sort of energy I love being around.”
Moran promptly joined Santry-based dance school Streets Ahead and began training under teachers Catherine Small and Chloe Simpson. “She was quite a shy 12-year-old,” Small says. “But one who instantly came alive when she started to dance.” Just one year in, Moran started competing with her crew Hustlers, blowing judges away at Irish and international competitions. At least, until the pandemic started. “We’d only gotten one competition in before everything closed down,” she says of the time now. “But [the team at] Streets Ahead were so good. Every hour we were allowed to be in the studio, we were there. And all the hours we weren’t, we were on FaceTime.”
Demi Moran captivates Dublin at Red Bull Dance Your Style Final
© Szymon Lazewski / Red Bull Content Pool
Streets Ahead is home to a suite of All Ireland champion dance crews, many of which have represented Ireland in the World Hip Hop Championships and have performed on the likes of The Late Late Toy Show, Ireland’s Got Talent & Sky 1s Got to Dance. It’s an encouraging kind of place, one where elite dance professionals are propelled by friendships, and prize modesty over all. “Demi is the most humble girl in the world,” Small insists. “She is always focused on growing and getting better, which is why it’s no surprise at all that she’s succeeding the way she is.”
“I’ve put in a lot of hours, mainly because I want to represent Ireland really well to the other dancers there,”
Moran has danced at a slate of venues around the world. Most recently, her crew, Hustlers, came third out of 25 countries at the UDO World Championships, competing at the highest level. She also performed at Red Bull Dance Your Style last year, selected as a guest wildcard for the qualifiers, and at just 18, made it into the top 8. “Looking back, it was such a different experience to this time around,” she says. “I was actually in 6th Year for it, so I came directly from my Maths paper to the arena! It was amazing seeing Seán [Hyland; 2025 Dance Your Style Irish champion] win and seeing how happy he was. That made me feel so inspired to go into this year, and was something I thought about again and again while training.”
For the 2026 competition, Moran was one of the competition’s marquee acts: dancing in the promotional video for the auditions alongside Red Bull Dance Your Style legends like 2024 winner Keelan Reynolds and Toochi Oguama. In June, she came second in the Dublin qualifier, defeating the defending champion as well as Brandon Dam and fellow Dublin performer, Tecc, in one-on-one battles in the National Stadium. A month later, on a sunny day in the National Stadium, Moran was crowned the Irish National Champion of Red Bull Dance Your Style 2026, a title which will see her represent Ireland at the Global Final in Zurich, Switzerland on October 24. “Just the most surreal experience of my life,” she laughs now. “I had no expectations going forward, I just wanted to enjoy it. And there were 7 people from Streets Ahead competing on the day, which really calmed my nerves, because these are the people I dance with all the time.”
Red Bull Dance Your Style is a global 1-v-1 freestyle street dance competition with a unique format: dancers don't know what music they will be given, there are no judges, and the crowd decides the winner by voting either blue or red. Despite little knowledge of the task that faced her, Moran trained for every possible outcome to secure her win. “You just have to train for every possibility," she says. “Going into it, I was just so focused on dancing in a way that showed I was enjoying myself, because at these things, you have experts in dance, but also people who don’t know too much about dancing styles. So I just wanted to show people that I was having fun, because that’s the sort of energy I love being around.”
For Zurich, she’s following a similar tact. “I’ve put in a lot of hours, mainly because I want to represent Ireland really well to the other dancers there,” she says. “I’ve also got such a great family here with Streets Ahead, that I want to make them proud. They’ve made sure that the studio is always open to me, which has given me the opportunity to train to so many different tracks and genres.”
Moran specialises in a few street dance styles, mainly hip-hop, house, locking, popping, waacking, and krump. To watch her perform is to see a professional in full flow: rousing and emotive, you never quite know what she’s going to do next. “She’s quite a technical hip hop dancer,” Small says of her style. “But she also has quite a feminine side to the way she dances, as well as really strong technical prowess.” Most of the time, she lets the moment decide where she’s going to go next. “My dance choices completely depend on the vibe of the audience,” she says. “As well as what I’m feeling myself. I freestyle on my emotions and how the music makes me feel, but the energy in the room is the biggest decider. It’s all about what’s going on in the room.”
Street dancing, as a genre, originated in the United States, emerging organically in the late 1960s and early 1970s outside dance studios in spaces like block parties, parks and clubs. In Ireland, the scene has been growing steadily since the 1980s, and still today remains closely tied to an underground youth and music culture. By the 2000s and 2010s, street dance transitioned from street corners to structured studio choreography, national crews, and major platforms. Some of the bigger names from the Irish scene –– Jessie Thompson, Gavin Kelly and her brother, Luke – are Moran’s greatest inspirations. “I grew up watching them,” she says. “I started battling around 15 so watching the older dancers was just the most incredible experience. Chloe and Catherine [from Streets Ahead] too are just so, so good at what they do. Even some of the boys younger than me are just so incredible; I look up to them as much as I do anyone else.”
Demi Moran takes over Red Bull Dance Your Style Final
© Szymon Lazewski / Red Bull Content Pool
Like many dancers, Moran thinks of herself primarily as a storyteller. In Zurich, she has her own story to tell. “I’m obviously nervous,” she says. “But this is such a cool experience, and to have friends and family come to support me is just amazing. At the final, I just want to have the most fun I can have, and show all the girls out there in the hip-hop scene that being yourself is the most important thing. At the end of the day, I’m going to compete against dancers I’ve looked up to for so long. To dance even in the same room as them is incredible, but to dance against them is mind-boggling. I never expected it to happen to me… but I’m definitely going to give it my best shot.”
The Red Bill Dance Your Style World Final 2026 takes place on October 24 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland. Doors open at 6 pm CEST, with the show starting at 8 p.m.