Oona Doherty is a Northern Irish choreographer, dancer and artistic director born in London in 1986 and raised in Belfast from the age of ten. Trained at London Contemporary Dance School, the University of Ulster and Trinity Laban, she founded OD Works in Belfast in 2020; the company has been based in Marseille since 2023.
Her dance theatre combines raw physicality with spoken text, club culture, street gesture and cinematic atmosphere. Doherty often draws on working-class communities, fractured masculinity, ritual and belonging, turning social observation into performances that can feel both confrontational and tender. Her breakthrough solo Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus was followed by Hard to Be Soft — A Belfast Prayer, Lady Magma, Navy Blue and Specky Clark. In 2021, La Biennale di Venezia awarded her the Silver Lion for Dance, recognising the direct, unconventional language of her choreography.
Doherty created Leather Jacket in 2026, revisiting the rhythm and bouncing movement of an earlier solo. Her 2026 tour also brings Hope Hunt, Lazarus and Specky Clark to stages across Europe and the United States. From 25 October to 15 November, the Irish Arts Center in New York presents Specky Clark, a ten-performer work blending family biography, Irish mythology and dark humour around the journey of her great-great-grandfather to Belfast.