Auditorium Theatre 2018-19 Issue 2 Trinity Irish Dance Company

6 | TRINITY IRISH DANCE COMPANY | FEBRUARY 2, 2019 BIOGRAPHIES MICHAEL DONNELLAN (Contributing Choreographer) began his Irish dancing career at 5 years old. In the last 30 years, he has won two solo World Championship titles in Irish dance, as well as titles at the All Ireland, British National, Munster, and Great Britain Irish dance championships. Donnellan is a former leading male performer of both Riverdance —The Show and Lord of the Dance . In 1999, he turned his talents to directorial and choreographic work with Star Entertainment’s Magic of the Dance and later took the role of director of choreography of Retfar Entertainment’s The Rhythms of Ireland , both of which continue to see Donnellan’s work performed on a nightly basis. Now, Donnellan is a choreographer of Danceperados of Ireland and the director of dance at Raglan Road at Disney World in Orlando, FL. He is a qualified physical education teacher from Brunel University London, and holds a master’s degree in dance performance from the University of Limerick. As a qualified TCRG and ADCRG (certified Irish dance teacher), Donnellan is the director of the Donnellan School of Irish Dance in Ennis in Clare County, Ireland, which also has a branch near Hamburg, Germany. He holds workshops in Portugal and Spain and regularly performs with the world-renowned Kilfenora Ceili Band and Fusion Fighters. MICHAEL GARDINER (Contributing Choreographer) started Irish dancing in Denver, CO at the age of 5. He won the Western Regional Oireachtas four times and competed all over the United States. In 2006, Gardiner moved with his family to Clarinbridge in Galway and joined the Hession School of Irish Dancing. Under the tutelage of the Hession teachers, Gardiner won many regional and national titles, including the Connacht Championships, British Nationals, Great Britains, All Scotlands, All Irelands, Irish Nationals, and ultimately back-to-back World Championships in Irish dance. Gardiner retired from competitive dancing in 2015 after winning his second world title. Gardiner made Irish dance history with his brother Matthew by becoming the first brothers in 30 years to simultaneously win the World Championships in Irish dance. He has performed with the Kilfenora Ceili Band and Fusion Fighters, and recently returned from Riverdance ’s winter tour of China. He is drawn to TIDC because of its unique balance of innovation with tradition. He is a keen lover of Irish dance and music and is currently an architecture student at the University of Limerick. SANDY SILVA (Co-Choreographer) and her work stand at the vanguard of contemporary artistry in traditional music and dance. For the past 30 years, she has drawn from percussive dance practices from many regions, including Hungary, Appalachia, Cape Breton, and Andalusia, as well as the idioms of circus, contemporary dance, and theatre. Silva weaves a dialogue between these vocabularies, blending the local and the post-modern in an organic, bodily response to her world. The result is an incredibly dynamic and emotive expression at the crossroads of movement and sound. Committed to the craft of bodily rhythm making, Silva transcends the world of sound and gesture to engage emotionally with cultural form. She is a dynamic and consummate performer: her very presence can hush a crowd with the faintest whisper of a shoe against the floor or set the stage alight with blazing body rhythms. THE BAND JAKE JAMES (Fiddle and bódhran) is a two-time All Ireland fiddle champion, bódhran player, and dancer from Queens, NY. James started playing the fiddle at age 7 and is a student of Niall Mulligan of Antrim. James started playing bodhrán at 13 years old and studied with Eamon Murray of Beoga. He won the trophy at the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil seven years in a row on bodhrán and won the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil two times on fiddle. James studied Irish dance with Dublin-born Niall O’Leary from the age of 3. Over the years, he has performed and taught at different venues and events, including the Great American Irish Festival in Frankfort, the Irish Arts Center, Symphony Space, BB King’s, Joanie Madden’s Folk’N Irish Cruise, Gracie Mansion, and Carnegie Hall. CHRISTOPHER KULWIN (Guitar and vocals) is a Chicago-based musician who began playing guitar at 8 years old. He has since grown as a multi-instrumentalist trained in piano, drums, accordion, fiddle, and more. Kulwin has been a collaborator with varied musical acts across the country. Dedicated to community and culture, Kulwin is a founding member of the Treehouse Collective, which owns one of the most prestigious recording studios in Chicago. Kulwin is often found contributing to Chicago’s Do-It-Yourself (DIY) community, a common core known for concerts in obscure and odd locations that has taken the city by storm. Kulwin is currently playing with Chicago bands Luke Henry & Hunnybear and Space Gators, and is working on opening “The Workshop,” an accessible studio for Chicago artists in need of a space to create. Kulwin took his first trip to Japan with TIDC in 2016, and is incredibly honored to share his talents with the company on international stages. STEVEN RUTLEDGE (Percussionist) is a Chicago-based freelance musician and music instructor with a strong passion for playing and teaching music. He is a proficient drummer and percussionist, and is also well-versed in guitar, bass guitar, and keyboards. Rutledge grew up playing music professionally in his hometown of Portland, OR. He studied sociology and education at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, and moved to Chicago in 2010 to pursue a degree in music at Columbia College Chicago. He played with various ensembles at Columbia