TIPPERARY DANCE - Key Persons
Ailish is a freelance collaborative dance artist concerned with dance, health and well being. As a choreographer, director, dramaturg, performer and facilitator. Since 2022, Ailish collaborates with Tipperary Dance, where she coordinates an important part of the Tipperary Dance Connects Communities programme, tutoring creative workshops with school children and the Age in Movement group, and organising the Tipperary Dance Connects event day.
Since graduating from Trinity LABAN, UK with a BA(Hons) in Dance Theatre, Ailish has studied Theatre Directing at NUIM and continues her studies at Trinity LABAN for a Post-graduate Specialist Diploma in Choreological Studies.
Creating and performing new work in a collaborative capacity since 2007, Ailish has worked with choreographers including Anneke Hansen Dance (NYC), Irish Modern Dance Theatre (Ire), Sara Rudner (NYC) and Daria Fain (NYC).
Ailish's choreographic work and collaborations have been performed internationally including New York, Boston, Pennsylvania, Canada, Sweden, Bulgaria & Scotland in addition to various national venues including The Project Arts Centre (Dublin) & The Firkin Crane (Cork), Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Bealtaine, Kinsale Arts Festival, Green Ribbon Week and Abundance Festival (Sweden).
Committed to developing contemporary dance within communities, Ailish works in collaboration with community groups and has designed and delivered many large scale projects for various groups of mixed abilities. Most recent engagements include dance for: Adults in Rehabilitation, Older Persons and People with Parkinson's Disease.
Ailish has worked on and led projects for The H.S.E. Dublin, Kerry Local Sports Partnership, V.E.C. Kilkenny, South Dublin County Council, Bealtaine Festival, Dublin Dance Festival & NOISE Dublin, Enable Ireland, St. John of God's, Stewarts Care, Macushla Dance Club, Dance Ireland, Youths at Risk, Dance United, Kerry County Council while Community Dancer in Residence (alongside Laura Murphy).
Ailish is certified by Mark Morris Dance Company, Brooklyn to teach Dance for Parkinsons Disease.
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director
- Scientist
- Choreographer
Alexandre is a choreographer, dancer and dance mentor. He is also co-founder (with Jazmin Chiodi), and director of Tipperary Dance and the Tipperary Dance International Festival, a development and performance space with international ramifications founded in 2008.
Alexandre initially trained as a scientist (MSc Biology) before becoming a full-time professional dancer in 1993, working in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Korea before settling in Ireland. He has toured over 35 countries worldwide with choreographers & companies such as Régine Chopinot CCN (Centre Chorégraphique National, La Rochelle), Joanne Leighton CCN (Belfort), Philippe Saire and Liz Roche.
Including the works co-created with Jazmin, Alexandre has created nearly 20 choreographic works, pieces and films, mostly through collaboration processes with other artists, and including a number of commissions. Their work has toured in more than a dozen countries.
Alla Kovgan is a Boston-based film maker, born in Moscow (Russia). Her films have been presented worldwide. Since 1999, Alla has been involved with interdisciplinary collaborations, creating intermedia performances (with KINODANCE Company), dance films and documentaries about dance. Since 2000, she has taught and curated dance film/avant-garde cinema as the programmer of St. Petersburg Dance Film Festival KINODANCE (Russia) and as a co-Curator of Balagan Film Series (Boston).
Amir Sabra is a Palestinain dancer and choreographer, currently based in Ireland. He completed his Master's degree in Contemporary Dance and Performance from the university of limerick.
In 2017 he started his choreography career with his first piece "Hiphopgeez" produced by Stereo48 Dance Company. in 2019 choreographed the piece "Journey to Jerusalem". In 2020 he directed the short dance film "False Awakening". and in 2022 created his first solo "within this party"
He started as a break-dancer in 2008 and then joined Hawaieh dance group where he represented Palestine with them in several dance contests in Denmark, Belgium, and Jordan. In 2015 he joined the Belgium-Palestinian dance piece "Badke", a co-production between Le ballet c d la b (Ghent), KVS (Brussels), and A.M Qattan Foundation (Ramallah). In 2017 he worked as a dancer and rehearsals manager with Ya Samar Dance theatre in their co-production with the A.M Qattan foundation "Everyday dance in everyday spaces". in 2019 he was a dancer in "Imprint" by the Pokemon crew from France. In 2021 he performed in floating on the Dead Sea by Catherine Young dance in Ireland. He worked with liz Roche dance company in 2023 in Kindred project, and Partita.
Dublin based dance artist/aerial dance artist, Anja, is a recent graduate with a 1st class honours in contemporary dance from the University of Limerick. She was trained in classical ballet in the United States under the Nashville Ballet & Nutmeg Conservatory of the Arts up until her switch to Contemporary Dance studies in 2017 where she trained at the Irish World Academy.
Anja enjoys rolling around the floor, as well as flying high and spinning fast on her hoop and has performed with the likes of David Keenan, and alongside Fidget Feet Aerial Dance in recent years. Her most recent project, was with Saeed Hani, of Hani Dance company. Since then Anja has been freelancing, on projects in film, and is a model. Her main interests in life are movement, listening to music, and observing nature and human interactions.
Anja is a participant of TD Creates 2022 Rising Voices
Aurora is an Italian dancer and performer based in Munich. Graduated at the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance in 2019, Aurora immediately started working as a freelancer and had the opportunity to collaborate with artists such as Anna Konjetzky, Wang Ramirez, Micha Purucker and Johannes Haertl dance company, among others.
At the same time, she has been cultivating her interest in mingling her movement language with different art forms by collaborating with various visual artists: she has been seen performing and dancing in Munich for Franz Erhard Walther, Lee Mingwei and Lena Grossmann.
In the recent years, Aurora has also been exploring her choreographic ideas with her solo "DiSCORDANCE" and the movement research "Darling, all we have is now." Furthermore, she is now expanding her focus by completing her Teacher Training course for the GYROTONIC® method.
Ben is a Dublin based dance artist with a passion for choreography and progressive artistic practice. Ben developed a passion for performing arts early in life. This passion led Ben to Company B an all boys amateur dance company held in Dance House. Here, under the mentorship of Ciaran Grey, Ben was able to discover and nurture their own creative voice. While at Company B Ben worked with various professional artists, both in and out of the company. Artists such as; Liv O'Donoghue, Junk Ensemble, Liz Roche, and many more.
Feeling the need to further their technique Ben attended "Fontys Dance Academy", and trained in various modern and classical techniques. Due to the pandemic and feeling an eagerness to join the working field, Ben decided to part with Fontys and begin looking for work in Ireland. Since leaving the academy, Ben has had the opportunity to learn from and work with; Keren Rosenberg, Oona Doherty, and Muirne Bloomer. Ben's focus for the future is to expand both his technical and artistic vocabulary in order to build an expansive but unified artistic community within Ireland.
Ben is a participant of TD Creates 2022 Rising Voices
Job Titles:
- Artist Liaison & Technical Assistant
Caleb Barrett is a Canadian citizen who grew up near Atlanta, GA and has been living in Tipperary Town since 2016. Caleb has been a contributor for Tipperary Dance as artist liaison, videographer and providing technical support.
He has no qualifications or relevant formal education, but persists with filming and editing in different forms (while calling it "videomancy" just to cover all the bases), photography, and the saxophone. Projectionist at the Tipperary Excel, he's gradually picking up some theatre tech knowledge. Prosopagnosiac, loves pickled foods.
Carlota Mantecón is a dancer and choreographer from Canary Islands, her work navigates through dance, choreography, performativity and curatorial practices. She studied in Barcelona first and continued her formation with a Postgraduate in Performance in London at LCDS.
Job Titles:
- Dance Ireland Associate Artist
- Director of the Welcoming Project
Catherine Young is a Dance Ireland Associate Artist, a UK BENCH Fellow & an associate artist at Siamsa Tire where she has been dancer in residence with Kerry County Council. She is also co-curator of What Next Dance Festival at Dance Limerick. Catherine has created work for the Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, The Big Bang Festival of Rhythm, Féile Fáilte and the University of Limerick among others. Her company works ‘State of Exception, ‘Ultima Thule', "Woman Stood Regardless' and ‘Welcoming the Stranger' have all been received to critical acclaim, with ‘Welcoming the Stranger' opening the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Palestine in 2017. She will premiere her new work inspired by her time in Palestine ‘Floating on a Dead Sea' at the Dublin Dance Festival in 2021.
Catherine is also the artistic director of The Welcoming Project - a progamme designed to foster cultural integration & social inclusion for Ireland's new communities through dance and in 2021 she launched her Funk & Folk podcast series to connect cultures through dance.
Clara Imhoff started her dance education at the Balletschule Theater Basel, where she learned the bases of classical dance. That is where she developed her interest in neoclassical works and techniques. To pursue her studies, she moved to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to start the Bachelor in Dance program at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. With teachers such as Dieter Heitkamp, she learned about contemporary dance and improvisation to expand her horizons, whilst continuing to work on her ballet techniques with former Forsyth Company members.
In the frame of the university, she got to dance works by Ivan Perez, Jirì Kylian, Marie Wigman and William Forsythe, amongst others. This diversity of styles inspired her to get curious and keep looking for what suits her best, physically and personality-wise.
Clara is interested in all of what art offers: music, theatre, painting, crafting. She believes it to be essential to her artistic development to find inspiration from the world around her. She orchestrated multiple cross-disciplinary pieces such as "512 Vaches", where she used poetry as her primary choreographic tool. She presented her works within the frame of different festivals and open scenes, and aspires to continue to do so.
In her professional career, Clara also focuses on sharing her knowledge and teaching youth, allowing young dancers to start their dance journey on a healthy, curious and sharpened foot.
Job Titles:
- Artist and Events Manager
Clodagh McCann is a touring artist and events manager. She has been Tipperary Dance International Festival's Program Coordinator since 2021.
She has extensive experience as an events coordinator and manager and has worked for organisations like Samsung, Electric Picnic or Red Bull.
With over 19 years experience Dj Clodagh has played all over the world headlining gigs in Bulgaria, Brazil, Japan, Tunisia, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Spain, Ireland, UK, Ibiza etc playing alongside some of the top Djs in the world like Tiesto, Sasha and many more as well as going on tour with her hero Carl Cox as his warm up Dj all over France, finishing the tour at the Cannes Film Festival.
Clodagh is also the first female Dj to ever play in Algeria. In 2004 she was a contestant on the 6 part ITV documentary called the "Joy of Decks" where she was mentored by Sister Bliss from Faithless. For 3 years she ran and promoted a club night in London called Spiritualised and for the past 5 years she has been running a club night in Ireland called MOOVE where she organises boat parties on the river Shannon. Clodagh is known for her uplifting style of house and techno music and is guaranteed to rock any party with her main goal of making people dance and express themselves.
Daniel Abreu is a dancer and choreographer, native to the island of Tenerife, where he began his inquisitive study of bodily movement and scenic expression. Moreover, during his artistic studies he also obtained a degree in psychology, something which transpires onto the deliberate poetic symbolism of his choreographies.
As a performer, he honed his dance skills in a variety of different dance companies and national dance or theatre organizations such as Provisional Danza and Matarile Teatro, and as a creator, he has amassed a wealth of experience from over sixty productions to date. These performances have been shown in many countries and their favourable reception by critics and audiences alike has led to various awards. As a result, Daniel Abreu has been one of the most renowned companies on the dance stage for years.
His company project emerged only in the year 2004, easy to forget given the sheer volume of creations and collaborations that have formed what we have come to know as the Daniel Abreu Company. As a consequence of all this creative work, Daniel Abreu has been invited to hold various workshops and courses, in which he shares his creative vision and techniques of bodily expression.
In addition, he continues to work closely on other projects with creators such as Fattoria Vittadini, Zagreb Dance Company, Nomadas Company, 10 & 10 Danza, Titoyaya Company, and Zawirowania Theatre, amongst others. In 2011, he also became part of a prestigious group of artists in the European programme called Modul Dance.
In 2018, he is named the artistic director of Lava Dance Company, resident contemporary dance company of Auditorio de Tenerife, where he created the awared Abisal.
Derek Pedros is a filmmaker and photographer specialized in movement and space, dance and architecture, based in the Canary Islands, Spain.
Appointed to the Board in February 2023. Dylan has an MA in Peace and Development Studies. He is a choreographer, dance artist. Artistic Director at Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre.
Eleni Roberts Kazouri (GR, 1998) is a dance performer based currently between Brussels and Athens.
She dances in Alexandre Iseli's 2023 creation Tempo Rubato.
She started her studies for dance in Athens and at the same time received her degree in classical piano from the National Conservatory. At the age of 21, Eleni moved to Brussels to attend the school for dance and performing arts, P.A.R.T.S., and since 2022 she has been a freelancer.
During her studies she focused on the development of her own movement, experimenting with diverse improvisational tools and ways of moving through space. She's intrigued by the different qualities that the human body can manifest, and she gets inspiration by music and sounds, in relation to body movement.
Eleni has performed in festivals, such as KDF (Kalamata Dance Festival), EXiiiT Festival (GXIII p.a.r.t.s. festival) and Festival Artonov (2022), creating her own work, participating in different projects, repertories, and creations. She performed the piece "Offering for a Monster" by Tamara Cubas, and since 2020 she has been performing the piece "FLIES", by Renato Miskolczi, that has been presented in WIELS, EXiiiT Festival, KANAL-Centre Pompidou Bruxelles and DeSignel in Antwerp.
Eleni is developing her own work as well as assisting residencies and new creations. Recently she joined ‘LOVEXTENDED', an
Eléonore Bovet is a dancer and choreographer based in Munich. She graduated in 2017 from Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance Munich and was awarded by the Iwanson-Sixt Stiftung the Residenz-Preis for exceptional artistic achievement as a young choreographer by Jessica Iwanson.
Eléonore artistic need is to explore topics such as gender, social interactions, sexuality and identity. She critically reflects on beliefs and power systems and likes to base herself on actual scientific and philosophical research, whilst mixing it with her personal experience. Her queer identity is a big portion of her work and she often directs her research under a queer point of view. Open to use every form of art needed to express her ideas, dance and movement are always part of her practise: She cherishes the body's strong instinctive power and its unability to hide emotions. Therefore, improvisation and theatricality are a big part of her movement research. Eléonore's recent choreographic works are (Zw)Einsamkeit in collaboration with Anima Henn and Glasshouse, co- created with Wiebke Dobers. She danced for choreographers such as Anna Konjetzky, Katja Wachter and David Russo. Eléonore is also an active member of the platform for freelance dancers TanzQuelle initiative Munich since 2018.
Emily designs, implements and artistically leads original dance projects. She has worked within participatory dance for over a decade, for organisations such as Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, English National Ballet and Siobhan Davies Dance. She has facilitated countless dance experiences - establishing herself as a social and creative entrepreneur. She also supports choreographers to produce innovative performance work, touring to theatres and festivals such as The Place and Dance Umbrella.
In 2016 Emily founded Move Dance Feel, a Community Interest Company offering dance to women affected by cancer, and works in partnership with leading cancer support Centres to incorporate dance into their care programmes.
As a dance and health specialist, Emily has spoken at the European Dance and Creative Wellness Foundation, the London Arts in Health Forum, the Leeds Cultural Institute, the Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference, and more.
In 2020 Emily was selected as a Winston Churchill Fellow to develop a new training programme for both dance professionals and health care providers. She was also nominated for a OneDanceUK Award in 2020 and 2021, as well as for a National Lottery ‘Good Causes' Award in 2021. Emily serves as a Dance for Health committee member for the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.
Emily graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Performing Arts, Culture and Communication from Oxford Brookes University, receiving the Keith Andrews prize for excellence in Performing Arts. Following which she gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Community Dance and a Masters degree in Creative Practice from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Fa-Hsuan Chen was born in 1976 in Tainan (Taiwan). She has been collaborating with Cocoon Dance company since 2013.
After completing her studies at the Tainan Women's College of Arts &Technology, Fa-Hsuan Chen continued her dance training from 2001 to 2004 at the Folkwang University in Essen. Since then, she has danced for Morgan Nardi/Ludica (Düsseldorf), Double C (Wuppertal), DIN A13/Gerda König (Cologne) and Irina Lorez (Switzerland), among others. From 2004 to 2012 she worked with the Ben J. Riepe Compagnie (Düsseldorf) and had engagements at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf/Duisburg) as well as Angie Hiesl (Cologne).
Fearghus Ó Conchúir is a choreographer and dance artist. Frequently collaborating with experts from across and beyond the arts, he makes film and live performances that create frameworks for audiences and artists to build communities together. He's currently co-leading a dance programme with Micro Rainbow International that he initiated as part of The Casement Project (2016) to support LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. From 2018-2020, he was Artistic Director of National Dance Company Wales. His work for the Company toured across Wales as well as being presented in Japan as part of Wales' cultural programme for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He was appointed to the Arts Council of Ireland in 2018 and became Deputy Chair in 2019.
Gaston Core is a performer, choreographer, theatre maker and cultural manager. He studied Audiovisual Communication and he graduated in Direction and Dramaturgy with and Master's degree in Contemporary Philosophy. From 2012 to 2021 he directed Sala Hiroshima in Barcelona. Then, he came back to directing and producing his choreographic projects. He is part of the Aerowaves artists' selection 2022 and has been awarded two public grants to develop his next project which will be premiered in 2023.
Gaya is a choreographer and producer from Brazil, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. She studied Animation Film and worked for nine years as a dancer and co-creator in a Brazilian Dance Company. In Portugal, she has worked with several artists such as Tiago Cadete, Sónia Baptista, Gustavo Ciríaco, Alex Cassal and Daniel Gorjão. In 2021, she created her first piece, ATLAS da BOCA and in December 2022, she premiered BAqUE. Gaya founded BRABA Plataforma which aims to support, enable and finance initiatives led by or focused on the trans community. Her artistic research ponders upon dance, words and affection.
Job Titles:
- Production Manager
- Production Manager and Lighting Designer
Gearoid O Hallmhurain is a Production Manager and Lighting Designer with over a decade of experience, with a primary focus in Dance, as a freelancer and most recently serving as the Production and Technical Manager with Tipperary Dance and Dance Limerick.
Greta has worked as line producer with Tipperary Dance since 2021. In 2022, she has become the Creative Producer in charge in the organisation.
Greta Bourke has a degree in English Literature and History of Art from Trinity College Dublin. She worked for several years in the art world and in publishing in London and then went to live in Santiago, Chile, where she worked as a journalist and editor. She returned to Dublin in 2016 when she began working with John Scott as company manager at Irish Modern Dance Theatre. Greta has extensive writing and editing experience in the arts, as well as many years of experience as a producer and administrator.
Isabella Oberländer is a dance artist, who engages with choreographic processes that embrace the advocacy of the dancing body. All the while working to explore a visceral articulation of physicality and thought. Oberländer's practice is guided by ongoing fascinations with identity/intersectional feminist politics, performativity and otherness.
Isaiah Wilson started dancing at the age of 11, and then gathered his first professional ambitions after entering the Conservatoire du Nord at the age of 14. His passion for art was intensified at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers. As the first class of the "General Artistic", he had access to a wide variety of art forms - ranging from painting to sculpting to digital art. After successfully completing his secondary education, he proceeded dance at Codarts Rotterdam University. In addition to the program, he did his internship with the renowned dance company ICK Amsterdam. After his studies, he decided to go back to Luxembourg to start his career as an interdisciplinary artist. Today, Isaiah Wilson works in film and composes music, whilst also being active as a contemporary choreographer.
Job Titles:
- Artist, Performer and Dance Dramaturg
Artistic Director of Dublin Dance Festival since 2021, Jazmin Chiodi is an Argentinian-Irish artist/curator/festival maker living and working since 2008 in Co. Tipperary. On the heels of an international career as a dancer and together with Alexandre Iseli, she embraced her own choreographic work, creating nearly twenty pieces and films and touring on five continents, and initiated the Tipperary Dance programme and International festival in 2008.
Job Titles:
- Creative and Multidisciplinary Consultant and Senior Manager
- Independent Advisor
John O'Brien is a creative and multidisciplinary consultant and senior manager with 25 years experience across the culture and creative industries, education, and arts/culture sector.
After successfully guiding Tipperary Dance in the elaboration of our new strategy for the coming years, John accompanies the organisation in its journey to develop a solid infrastructure at the service of our mission, helping us improve corporate structure and governance standards. He has become one of Tipperary Dance's trusted advisor.
John works independently as a strategy and policy consultant with a broad range of clients in the Culture and Creative sectors. He facilitates stakeholder engagement, performs feasibility studies, conducts qualitative and quantitative research, crafts strategy and policy actions, designs business models, and helps people and organisations think with greater clarity, and plan with more ambition.
His qualifications include MSc. Business and Management, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin BA (Hons) English Literature and Sociology Trinity College, Dublin. New Frontiers Entrepreneur Programme Enterprise Ireland. Profile Leadership Programme Common Purpose, Dublin. Dip. International Arts Management and Marketing Luphana University.
Founded in 1991 by dancer and choreographer John Scott, Irish Modern Dance Theatre is one of the most original and responsive dance companies working in Ireland today. A Dublin-based ensemble, Scott and international guest choreographers create distinctive dance works with diverse casts, mixing virtuosic Irish and international dancers with African and Middle Eastern refugees and torture survivors. Most recent works include ‘Lear', ‘Inventions', ‘Actions', ‘Dances for Inside and Outside' and ‘Fall and Recover' - all recognised for their intelligence, honesty and humanity. Our work crosses disciplines, subverts expectations of dance and dancers and finds new ways to explore contemporary issues.
Job Titles:
- Programme Coordinator
- Coordination Manager
Juley-Ann Collins works with Tipperary Dance as coordination manager. She has extensive experience working in the Irish cultural landscape in national and international context, co-ordinating small to large scale projects, festivals and tours, funders including the Arts Council of Ireland and Creative Europe.
Juley-Ann has worked across multi-disciplinary arts settings such as festivals, production companies, venues and local authorities, with a recent focus on producing street arts and circus in a freelance context.
Job Titles:
- Graphic Designer
- Illustrator
Nuria Vega is a graphic designer, illustrator and lettering artist from Argentina who recently joined the Tipperary Dance team. She redesigned the Tipperary Dance logo and created the visual identity for our 2023 festival.
She studied Graphic Design and Illustration in the Escuela de Artes Visuales in Bahía Blanca, Argentina and currently lives in Antwerp, Belgium.
Nuria is a freelance brand developer with a passion for art and music related projects. During more than 13 years of experience, Nuria has worked in many areas of graphic design with a particular interest for brand development, illustration, icons and lettering