|
Trinity is a committed team of families, teachers and staff that: • teaches children to support and encourage their peers. |
|
"We believe in Trinity. We believe in its power to elevate each child not only into the best dancer he or she is capable of being, but also in its ability to provide a vehicle for every child to become his or her very best self."
-Mark and Natalie Howard
 |
MARK HOWARD (Founder, Artistic Director) |
||
|
By using Irish dance as both an instrument and metaphor, Mark Howard has been crossing dance and cultural boundaries in important ways. This Emmy Award-winning choreographer has synthesized forms and transcended craft into art, creating something that is forward-looking and new. His work maintains integrity, while it simultaneously goes beyond the framework of ethnicity to carve new traditions. Born in Yorkshire, England, and raised in Chicago, Howard began his dancing career at age nine. Becoming a North American Champion Irish dancer himself, he launched the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance at age 17. Experiencing great success, the school has won an unprecedented 32 World Championship titles for the United States - the first when Howard was only 25. In nearly thirty years since its inception, the Trinity Academy has grown from a dozen students practicing in a church basement, to the largest Irish dance program in the world. Intent on preserving the legacy of Irish dance and providing a creative outlet and professional livelihood for dancers, Howard formed the Trinity Irish Dance Company at age 29. Before that time, there were no Irish step dancers performing collectively outside the competitive realm. In the late 1990s, he began a second company called Trinity II, a division of the Trinity Performance Troupe. Howard's work has been showcased on National programs such as The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Live with Regis, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America and The Martha Stewart Show. |
|||
