TARA BRANDEL | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER

Tara Brandel Tara Brandel is an award-winning choreographer, director, contemporary dancer, and aerialist originally from West Cork. She has been making work extensively since 1990 in London, Berlin, San Francisco and Ireland.

She trained in contact improvisation and acrobatics with Steve Paxton, Laurie Booth and DV8 Physical Theatre as a teenager, and in aerial with aerial pioneers Terry Sengraff USA (Motivity low flying trapeze) and Genevieve Mazin France (Vertical dance, wall running), and with members of No Fit State Circus UK (hoop and trapeze). 

Tara holds a Masters in Interdisciplinary Performance from UC Davis, where she was awarded the Della Davidson Award 2019, the Mondavi Fellowship, and the Women's Research Center Fellowship for her show Circus, which toured to San Francisco International Arts Festival, Seattle International Dance Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and FRESH San Francisco 2020. Her dance film CAR was Director's Choice at the CDIFF in Toronto 2017.

Tara is also Artistic Director of Croí Glan Integrated Dance. Her integrated work has been commissioned by the Unlimited Festival/Cultural Olympiad London Southbank 2012; D-CAF Cairo; David Teevan/Junction Festival; and Propeller Integrated Dance Company in Ottawa, Canada. For Croí Glan, Tara has most recently created TILT an integrated aerial dance show which has toured to Cork Midsummer, Tipperary Dance Festival and Dancer from the Dance Festival; In Place a site specific performance made at IMMA; and Unseen a multidisciplinary performance about plankton and enduring love.

Tara is currently developing an Environmental Dance training programme in conjunction with the Environmental Research Institute at UCC.

RACHEL PAUL | DANCER

Rachel Paul discovered integrated dance in 2012. From that moment, she never stopped dancing, and she has worked with several companies in Perú (Kinesfera Danza), Colombia (ConCuerpos), and France (Etrangères). 

She has also trained in London with Candoco Dance Company. In Paris, she organized some events to help integrated dance companies to share their work. Apart from dancing, she's a documentary filmmaker, and she is currently working on a project about the disability rights movement in France.

ALEXANDRE LEGRAIN | DANCER

Alexandre Legrain is a wheelchair user originally from France.  He was involved at a very young age in sports, at first martial arts, (judo, taekwondo) then some other individual sports, as well as some amateur drama / performing arts groups in Strasbourg. After a few years of extensive travel, Alex lived in Cork 2016-17, where he was involved with the Rebel Wheelers sports organisation. He is a wheelchair rugby player.

He has a professional background in the field of adult education, working as a trainer and a counsellor in various institutions (companies, schools, continuing education) with a focus on trainer's training and online education. He is also involved in LGBTQI community centres as a volunteer, especially as a facilitator for anti-discrimination awareness sessions for teens and adults. 

Alex has recently joined Croí Glan as a dancer.

ORAN LEONG | DANCER & ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Oran Leong is a multidisciplinary artist in the genres of traditional Irish, contemporary and aerial dance. He holds three World Championship titles in Irish dance, as well as an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance.  Oran was Assistant Artistic Director of Laois Youth Dance Ensemble and backstage presenter for TG4’s dance show ‘An Ríl Deal’. Working for a number of Irish and international companies in his variety of dance styles, he has also created his own solo dance works which have been presented at multiple Irish platforms, as well as in Europe. Oran has successfully received Arts Council Ireland awards in the Traditional Arts, Dance and Circus disciplines, while offering his accumulated knowledge to other creatives through mentorship. Since 2022, Oran has been Associate Artist of Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre and in 2023, was Dance Artist In Residence at Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo. Having first joined Croí Glan during their creation of 'Tilt', he is delighted to now become an Associate Artist of the company.

TANYA TURNER | DANCER & ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Tanya Turner grew up in the beautiful Wexford countryside, and knew from an early age she had a passion for music and dancing. She practised Irish dancing from the age of 8 – 11 and then played violin in the Wexford Sinfonia orchestra from age 12 – 17. She discovered ballroom dancing in college and later Salsa dancing. Nothing made her feel freer, except for African drumming, which she took up after finding a tumour in her left leg – something that curtailed her enjoyment of dancing for quite a while. This tumour eventually led to cancer, which led to the amputation of her whole left leg, back in 2017.  But not long after this, she met Tara Brandel, whose enthusiasm and encouragement about her dancing in her new body led to her dancing with the Croí Glan company.