Meet the Team
Photo credit: Emma Jervis
TARA BRANDEL | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
Tara Brandel is a Contemporary dancer and choreographer originally from West Cork. She trained at the Laban Centre in London and has been choreographing extensively since 1990. She performed Gawky and Awkward at San Francisco International Arts Festival 2015; created Square One for D-CAF 2017 in Cairo, Egypt; her dance film CAR was Director's Choice at the CDIFF in Toronto 2017; and she performed in Jess Curtis/Gravity's Intercontinental Collaborations #7 in San Francisco 2018. Tara toured Cappaghglass, a one woman show about migration to Cork Midsummer Festival, D-CAF Cairo Egypt, Echo Echo Derry, San Francisco FRESH Festival, and Ponderosa, Germany. She is co-Artistic Director of Croí Glan. Tara holds a Masters in Interdisciplinary Performance from UCDavis, 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. She is currently Arts Council Dance Artist in Residency at Ballina Arts Centre, and most recently has created TILT an integrated aerial dance show which has toured to Cork Midsummer, Tipperary Dance and Dancer from the Dance Festival.
WILLIAM O’DONOVAN | DANCER
William is from Cork, with a love for bocca , drama, swimming and dance. He began his dance career in 2007 attending Croí Glan community classes, and progressed to assist teach community workshops. He first performed with Croí Glan in Fall choreographed by Tara Brandel at Cork Midsummer Festival, 2009, followed by Path Past Groove by Eric Kupers 2011. William developed his practice through an Inquiry research project lead by Mary Nugent in 2012. Most recently he took a lead role in Elk and Saintly, choreographed by Leonie McDonagh, and nominated for best ensemble at Tiger Dublin Fringe 2015.
Photo credit: Emma Jervis
TANYA TURNER | DANCER
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.
GWEN VAN SPIJK | PRODUCER
Gwen is a Producer, Consultant, Trainer and Mentor who has worked across the full breadth of the live performance sector. She was Administrative Director for Motionhouse Dance Theatre 1992 – 1997 after which she embarked on a career as an independent working with artists including: Russell Maliphant, Carol Brown, Rosemary Butcher and Nigel Charnock as their manager and project and/or tour producer. Gwen has also produced a number of one-off projects including: Where The Land Meets the Sea, choreographed By Charlie Morrissey and performed by a cast of a 100 on Brighton beach; Destino, a co-production between Dance United and Sadler’s Wells for a cross generational cast of 130 performers with live music from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; and a large-scale dance programme for the Rugby League World Cup 2013 including a performance by a cast of 500 for the Opening Ceremony at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Gwen relocated from the UK to West Cork in 2019.