On March 2, 2019 the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center will present the innovative Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) as part of the Center’s Dance Series. The Los Angeles Times said that the company was “sophisticated and commanding,” and the New York Times also raved about this unique company, calling it “impossibly complex.”
March 2nd will mark the Trinity Irish Dance Company’s return to the Los Angeles area in over two decades and the program features new works never before seen in Los Angeles; works with “hard-driving percussive power and lightning-fast agility”.
The company was founded in 1990 by Emmy-award winning choreographer and Artistic Director, Mark Howard. TIDC was the birthplace of progressive Irish dance which led to the formation of other companies such as Riverdance. Howard expressed that his vision was to fuse the “vibrancy of traditional Irish dance with contemporary American ideas”. The critical acclaim that the company has received around the world to sold-out houses is proof that Howard’s vision for his company has been successful. In the US, TIDC has performed at the Kennedy Center and at the Joyce Theater in New York City.
Trinity Irish Dance Company has always celebrated the strength and resilience of young female artists in how it casts its dances, female choreographers and designers. Unlike other companies, the talents and strengths of the TIDC women are at the forefront. The company consists of 18 women and 2 men but everyone is equally represented. One of the choreographers, Chelsea Hoy, stated that the women of TIDC “not only get to make noise, but are expected to make noise.” An Sorcas, co-choreographed by Hoy and Howard, will have its West Coast premiere at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. It is described as a commentary on the battle between substance and spectacle in the performing arts and Irish Dance specifically.
The company’s press release stated that the performance on March 2nd marks yet another special moment for Trinity Irish Dance Company. It read, “Like thousands of people between 1947 and 1967, Trinity Irish Dance Company founder Mark Howard and his mother immigrated to the United States from England aboard the Queen Mary before it was permanently docked in Long Beach. Howard and his mother, who will be in town for the performance, will visit the Queen Mary during their stay in March.”
What: Trinity Irish Dance Company
Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton Street, Long Beach, CA 90815
When: Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 8:00 PM. (Doors open at 7:00 PM)
Tickets start at $50.00. For tickets and more information, click here. Or, call the Carpenter Center Ticket Office at (562) 985-7000.