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Patricia Durcan (née Cochrane) was born in Belfast and attended the Jim Johnson School of Dance in that city.

Russian ballet dancer and the first director of the Irish National Ballet School.

Emmanuel College, Cambridge was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay (1520/21-1589), Chancellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, for the purpose of educating Protestant preachers. The college was puritan in its outlook, and its early statutes promoted a Spartan and disciplined regimen. Owing to its strong Protestant ethos, the College grew rapidly. By the 1620s, it was the largest in Cambridge. The College did not only expand physically. Over the course of the seventeenth century, it broadened its scope and developed into a centre of humanist and latitudinarian study.

Maria Ann Emra was born on 8 October 1835 in Downton, Wilshire to the Reverend John Emra, perpetual curate of Redlynch, Somerset, and Maria Lydia née Symes. Her mother died a few days after her birth, and in 1839 her father married Frances Anne Atkinson. From this second marriage, Maria had eight half-siblings. One of them, Alice Emra, was author of a novel entitled The Dark Cavern; or, Harry’s Obedience. Maria Ann Emra never married. She died in Woodford, Essex on 7 March 1904.

Dr László Felföldi is the head of the Folk Dance Department at the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and a member of a number of distinguished professional cultural organisations. His work centres on Hungarian folk dance traditions and those of Hungarian national minorities in Eastern Europe.

Ferenka Limited was a steel-cord manufacturing plant located in Annacotty, Limerick. Its managing director, Dr Tiede Herrema, was kidnapped in October 1975 by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) to secure the release of three republican prisoners.

Siân Ferguson is a professional Labanotator, director, dancer, and choreographer. She trained at the Laban Centre for Dance in London, the City College of New York, and the Dance Notation Bureau in New York, completing an MA in Dance Research & Reconstruction in 1987 and a Professional Notator Certification in 1992. She has taught at Stanford University, SUNY Purchase, City College of New York, and Hofstra University and worked as Paul Taylor's Company Notator for five years. She has taught adults at Dance Theatre of Ireland and children at Encore! School of Performing Arts in Dublin, where she founded a programme in Tumbling for Tots. She is currently retired and living in the Bay Area of California.

Firkin Crane, one of Cork City’s landmark buildings, was designed in 1855 by Sir John Benson to meet the needs of the city’s thriving butter market. Following the closure of this trade in 1924, the building acted as a margarine factory. It was later acquired by Joan Denise Moriarty with the financial assistance of the Arts Council to have it refurbished as a home for her professional dance company. During the refurbishment, the building was gutted by fire. It was subsequently restored with support from Cork City Council, the Irish Government, the European Union, Irish businesses, multi-national corporations and the Irish American Fund, and re-opened in 1992 as a centre dedicated to dance, living theatre, concerts, opera, art exhibitions, poetry readings and a variety of sound, visual and multimedia arts. Until 2006, Firkin Crane was also the location of the Institute for Choreography and Dance (ICD), directed by Mary Brady, which aimed to stimulate choreographic practice and dance research as a means of dance development. It provided space for interchange between choreographers to examine issues, work methodologies and goals particular to each, in a practice-centred environment. Today, Firkin Crane provides a supportive environment for professional artists in the form of a professional residency programme, Blank Canvas.

Fitzgerald & Stapleton is a contemporary dance company founded and directed by Emma Fitzgerald and Áine Stapleton. The company’s choreo¬graphic work focuses on the interaction between the body and contemporary society, and the objectification of the body to create revenue for the beauty, diet, and pornography industries, aiming to offer an alternative value system for looking at and relating to the body. In addition to Irish venues, Fitzgerald & Stapleton have toured widely and performed their work at Chocolate Factory Theater and Judson Church, New York; the Pompidou Centre, Paris; and the Performing Arts Forum, Reims. Áine Stapleton has been named as one of the Top 30 Artists under the ages of 30 for her contribution to Ireland’s cultural life.