PRESS RELEASE ISSUED: 20^th May 2009

Professional Dancers and Tallaght Youth challenge notions of Disability

CROI GLAN will visit Tallaghts Civic Theatre on 26^th July with a performance of three pieces involving professional dancers and young people in Tallaght. The performances incorporate dancers with and without disabilities in ways that challenge notions of what we may think to be possible.

The first piece, Asymmetrical Tendencies, was created by internationally renowned choreographer Jess Curtis (San Francisco/ Berlin) in collaboration with dancers Tara Brandel and Rhona Coughlan of CROI GLAN. It has had a sell out run in San Francisco and received standing ovations at Cork Midsummer Festival 2008. In this collaborative duet, shards of narrative are interwoven with an exploration of the idiosyncrasies of two very different bodies those of contemporary dancers Tara Brandel and Rhona Coughlan to create dance that is insightful, humorous and beautiful.

The second piece, commissioned this year by Croi Glan, is by Irelands leading choreographer David Bolger, Artistic Director of the award winning dance company CoisCim. On the Wall is a humorous but poignant quartetand is triggered by the potential contrast between the perceptions we hold of ourselves and those the world holds of us. It investigates the potent cocktail of identity, sexuality and politics that mix to form the tension between self-image and other's image of us.

The third piece will be a performance by young people from St. Kevins Family Resource Centre in collaboration with Tara Brandel and Rhona Coughlan of CROI GLAN. Young people from the Tallaghtfornia group of Tallaght Youth Service and the Irish Wheelchair Association Youth Service (IWA Youth Service), both based within St. Kevins Family Resource Centre, are working with CROI GLAN over a one-day workshop held at Brookfield Youth and Community Centre. Via this youth-led project, a panel of young people chose to work with CROI GLAN to engage in the collaborative creation of an artwork to challenge stereotypes about young people with and without disabilities. Tara Brandel, CROI GLAN Artistic Director, has said, "Integrated Dance is an empowering experience which provides a safe environment to build up trust and confidence, through physical expression and creativity, and celebrates the uniqueness of each persons way of moving."The piece CROI GLAN and the young people create will be performed at the Civic Theatre. The workshop and performance marks the commencement of exploration into establishing a long-term collaborative, integrated arts project involving Tallaghtfornia, young members of the IWA Youth Service, and artist Aileen Lambert. With additional support from The Arts Council andthe Department of Social and Family Affairs, this long-term project is aimed at creating awareness of issues that affect young people with disabilities among their peers. The project will also work towards challenging stereotypes that may exist about young people with and without disabilities.

The workshop and performances by Croi Glan are supported and funded by the partnership of St. Kevins Family Resource Centre; South Dublin County Council; the Civic Theatre, Tallaght; the Irish Wheelchair Association; and Tallaght Youth Service. We are delighted to take a joint-agency approach to supporting collaborative youth and community arts practice.

Founded in Cork in 2006, CROI GLAN is a professional, physically integrated dance company combining the talents of national and international able-bodied and disabled dance artists. Under the guidance of Artistic Director, Tara Brandel and Outreach Director, Rhona Coughlan, CROI GLAN creates work "of considerable power and, it must be said, surprise" (Mary Leland, The Irish Times). In a relatively short time, the company has created a reputation for innovative and involving dance by constantly originating and developing performance work. Croi Glan has performed this work in front of international audiences from Glasgow to San Francisco and Cork to Dublin. An equally important aspect of the companies work is its commitment to education and the provision of integrated dance classes and workshops.

Performance: 8:00 pm, Civic Theatre, Main auditorium

Croi Glan Biographies:

Tara Brandel, Artistic Director

Tara is a contemporary choreographer and performer originally from West Cork, Ireland. She trained at the Laban Centre, London and with Steve Paxton, Nigel Charnick and Lloyd Newsom. She studied Integrated Dance with Axis Dance Company and Alito Alessi, and in 2005 had a year's residency at Beaumont College, a college for people with disabilities in Lancaster, England. Her work has been performed at Firkin Crane, Triskel Arts Centre, and Cork Opera House, Cork; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Stukke Theatre and Ponderosa Festival, Germany; 848 Community Space, Jon Sims Centre, San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Dance Festival, Sky Dancers, Dance Mission Theatre, and Performance Showcase, San Francisco; and Spring Loaded, The Place Theatre and Chisenhale Dance Space, London. She has danced for Ka Rustler (Berlin), Emilyn Claid, (London) Jo Krieter(SF), and Kim Epifano(SF) and has has won numerous awards from the Irish Arts Council, London Arts Board, Zellerbach Foundation and Theatre Bay Area. She was a Co-Director of 848 Community Space, San Francisco from 2002-2004. Dance Theatre Journal writes, "Brandel's work has a startling raw honesty...ambitious and oblique

Rhona Coughlan, Outreach Director

Croi Glan Outreach Director Rhona Coughlan started dancing in secondary school at the age of 15 with performances in Father Mathew Hall and Cork Opera House. At 17 she ran her own Integrated Dance company, Wheels in Motion, with several performances in Cork City, including a performance at the Cork Opera as a part of International Dance Week. As education director of Croi Glan she teaches community level integrated dance classes, has performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival, and was involved in a Making Spaces research residency in England, as well as attending CanDoCo's summer intensive 2007. She is currently taking up Yoga, and finding new and beautiful ways to fall out of her wheel chair. Rhona says, "Dancing has always been a very strong presence in my life. It's in my blood and it is one of many elements that defines who I am as a person."