Collaborators
christopher Caines
Christopher Caines was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, earned an A.B. in literature at Harvard, and danced for some 20 NYC-based companies before founding the chamber ballet company Christopher Caines Dance in 2000, for which he has since created more than 35 works. He has also worked as a director, composer for dance and theater, actor, singer, percussionist, and lighting designer.
Seán CURRAN - GUEST CHOREOGRAPHER
Artistic Director of the Seán Curran Company, Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in “Secret Pastures.“ A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was recently hired as Associate Chair of their Dance Department. Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. His choreography has appeared on Broadway in “James Joyce's The Dead“ for Playwrights Horizons and in “Cymbaline“ and “The Rivals“ at Lincoln Center Theater. Curran has a new career directing opera and made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. He has also directed “Salome,“ “Daughter of the Regiment,“ “Where the Wild Things Art,“ and “Candide,“ for New York City Opera, Opera Montreal, San Francisco Opera, and Opera Theater of St. Louis. Curran has also created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skänes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.
Hannon
COMING SOON
NIALL O’LEARY - FEATURED MUSICIAN & DANCER
Niall O'Leary is a former All-Ireland and World Champion Irish Dancer from Dublin, Ireland. He performs as a solo artist, in duet with Darrah Carr, and with various musical acts including: Mick Moloney's Green Fields of America, Natalie MacMaster, Cherish the Ladies, The Prodigals, Atlantic Wave, The McCabes, Ceili Rain and The Andy Cooney Band. His dance teachers included Kevin Massey, proclaimed by Michael Flatley to be the greatest Irish dancer ever, and Rory O'Connor, the first man to perform Irish dancing on the radio. O'Leary heads the largest Irish dance school in New York City and directs The Niall O'Leary Irish Dance Troupe. In addition, he directs the Irish Arts Center's New York City Irish Dance Festival. O'Leary is in high demand as a master instructor, conducting regular workshops throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and Japan. O'Leary has made an instructional video in Irish step dancing entitled “Cuts from the Kitchen“ and his performances have been featured on NBC lV, Fox 5, and Fuji lV (Japan). He is accomplished musician on the accordion, spoons, and piano. O'Leary also practices as an architect.
AMANDA K. RINGGER - RESIDENT LIGHTING DESIGNER
Amanda K. Ringger has lived in New York since 1997designing locally, nationally and internationally with artists such as Darrah Carr, Faye Driscoll, Julian Barnett, Deborah Lohse, Laura Peterson, Cynthia Oliver, Alexandra Beller, Katie Workum, Doorknob Company, Shannon Gillen, Kota Yamazaki, and Mark Jarecke, among others. She received a BA from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD and an MFA in lighting design from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She is the recipient of a 2009 Bessie award for her collaboration on Faye Driscoll's 837 Venice Boulevard.