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The Ponydance Theatre Company was founded in 2005 by Leonie McDonagh (b. 1981), who received her training at Sallynoggin College, Dublin and at London Contemporary Dance School. The other founding member was Paula O’Reilly. Company members include Duane Waters, Ryan O’Neill, Lorcan O’Neill, Carl Harrison, Neil Hainsworth, and Oona Doherty. The company’s performances combine contemporary dance and commercial dance with comedy and theatre. Their success is evidenced by the Audience Choice Award, which they won in 2009 at the Pick’n’Mix Festival, Belfast.

Fiona Quilligan was born in Dublin and studied dance at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and the London School of Contemporary Dance. She performed with Dublin City Ballet before founding Rubato Ballet in 1986. Her vision for this collective of professional dance artists was to create new Irish dance works and to pioneer links with related art disciplines, such as music, art, poetry and sculpture. The company achieved high critical acclaim both in Ireland and abroad and was the recipient of the Nijinsky Medal from the Polish Artists Agency Warsaw (1990), the AIB Better Ireland Award for Arts and Culture (1992), and the ESB Environmental Awareness Award (1999).

In 1992, the company founded Rubato Community Arts Project in association with FÁS, which employed 14 artists to provide experiences of dance, music and painting for primary and secondary school children and to establish a role for artists in the community. Rubato Ballet was wound down in 2003, and a year later Quilligan continued her career as a freelance choreographer. More information on Fiona Quilligan and Rubato Ballet can be found at https://www.fionaquilligan.info/.

Nan Quinn lived in Bessbrook, county Armagh, Northern Ireland and was introduced to Irish dancing by a nun in Bessbrook Convent in c. 1911. She established a traditional Irish dancing school in Bessbrook in 1933. She was a member of Cumann na mBan and a committed republican and was highly regarded in traditional Irish dance and republican circles.

Ranks Flour Mill was established in 1931 by Joseph Rank (1854-1943), founder of one of Britain's largest flour milling and bakery companies. It was a significant industrial driver in Limerick, providing employment for 500 permanent staff and up to 1000 seasonal workers. The company ceased operations in 1983, following severe financial losses caused by increasing competition from cheap flour imports and a decline in bread consumption.

Domy Reiter-Soffer was born in Tel Aviv and began his career with Israel Ballet in 1959. In 1962, he became a member of Irish Theatre Ballet, Ireland’s first professional ballet company, and danced as a guest with Cork Ballet Company, both of which were run under the artistic directorship of Joan Denise Moriarty. In 1964, he moved to the UK, where he became a member of London Dance Theatre, The Western Theatre Ballet at Saddler’s Wells, and The Scottish Ballet. He has also been a guest artist with major American ballet companies, among others New York Contemporary Dance Company, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Theatre 2, Ballet Met, and Ohio Ballet. He also danced with the Israeli Bat-Dor Dance Company and acted as its resident choreographer, creating over thirty ballets for the company. From 1975-1989 he acted as artistic advisor and choreographer of Irish National Ballet creating over twenty works, among them Women, Yerma, Paradise Gained, Lady of the Camellias, Pomes Penyeach, La Valse, Chariots of Fire, House of Bernarda Alba, and Oscar, the company’s last ballet before its disbandment in 1989. Domy Reiter-Soffer’s distinguished career has seen him as director of numerous plays, musicals, and operas, choreographer for film, opera, and television, and designer of over thirty dance and theatre productions across the world. He is also an accomplished painter, with twenty-two one-man shows in Europe, America, and Israel.

Rex Levitates Dance Company was co-founded in 1999 by choreographer Liz Roche (b. 1975) and dancer Jenny Roche (b. 1972) to further the contemporary dance art form, forge new performance modes, and encourage and promote dance awareness. The company is known for its entertaining, innovative, and thought-provoking dance works and its distinctive contemporary non-narrative style which draws influence from visual art. Rex Levitates has performed throughout Ireland and abroad in China, France, Cyprus, and the UK, and was the winner of the Dublin Dance Festival’s Jayne Snow Award in 2002. In March 2012, Rex Levitates Dance Company changed its name to Liz Roche Company.