Auditorium Theatre 2019-2020 Trinity Irish Dance Company

18 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2019-20 | January 18 - March 8, 2020 Trinity Irish Dance Company Brings World Premieres to the Auditorium TRINITY IRISH DANCE COMPANY TIDC Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer Mark Howard Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) returns to Chicago in February following its acclaimed performance at the Auditorium in 2019! The company's 2020 program features timeless classics and exciting premieres, including Home by TIDC Artistic Director Mark Howard and Associate Artistic Director Chelsea Hoy and American Traffic , created by tap dancers and choreographers Melinda Sullivan and Michelle Dorrance. These creators spoke with the Auditorium about their new works! MARK HOWARD AND CHELSEA HOY Auditorium Theatre [AUD]: Tell us about the inspiration for Home . Mark Howard [MH]: Home was born out of wanting to create something that celebrated our newfound home at the Auditorium Theatre. I wanted to honor the dance, music, theatre, and comedy that has graced its stages over the past 130 years. The idea for the piece originated from my many directives to Siri to “take me home” while driving, as well as my wooden kitchen table that I picked up at a garage sale years ago, which has become the heart of my Bucktown home and a powerful circle that has transformed the way my friends and family communicate. This is your second co-choreographed piece. Can you describe your collaborative process? Chelsea Hoy [CH]: Mark creates with an incredible sense of inclusiveness. He dreams up concepts and creates the broad brushstrokes, always searching to tease out every option without losing sight of the big picture. The amount of innovative ideas that pour out of him is overwhelming. As a visual artist with dancing feet and an analytic brain, I help shape, edit, and make sense of those ideas. MH: From inception, I wanted this company to serve as a creative forum for dancers to flourish as performing artists and grow as choreographers, a concept that has been increasingly realized in recent years. Chelsea’s abilities and tenacity led to our first co-choreographed piece, An Sorcas (The Circus) , which world premiered at the Auditorium Theatre last year. The success of that dance has opened the door to a seemingly endless list of future collaborations. What do you hope audiences take away from the work? CH: Our company is built on taking care of one another. Everything that’s happening around that table — the laughter, the blending of talents, and the folksiness — comes from a very real place. I hope the audience allows us to break the fourth wall to share in our vulnerability and connect with us and the people sitting around them. MH: I hope they’re inspired to re-invest in whomever or wherever makes them feel a sense of home. To seek rhythms in unlikely places that enhance their own dance through life. To follow the flow that is offered if they allow themselves to be in the simple moments. And I hope they realize everything will find its way to being okay when they surround themselves with the people who tell them so. TRINITY IRISH DANCE COMPANY TIDC Associate Artistic Director Chelsea Hoy