Acclaimed, innovative Irish Dance Company to Perform on April 8 in CFA

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Trinity Irish Dance Company at 8 p.m. on April 8 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. A pre-performance talk will be held at 7 p.m. The performance is sponsored by KeyBank. Media sponsors are WJYE-FM and WGRZ-TV.

Trinity dazzles audiences with the hard-driving percussive power, lightning-fast agility, aerial grace and awe-inspiring precision of its dancers. It also offers something more profoundly significant -- the transcendence of craft to a truly elevating art form, a dance legacy that is rooted in tradition, yet forward looking and ever evolving.

Artistic director Mark Howard founded Trinity Irish Dance Company in 1991 as a means to provide professional career opportunities to students who had no outlet for Irish dancing beyond the competitive circuit. This innovative nonprofit company is constantly searching for original means of expression, while maintaining a high regard for old traditions. Trinity, a uniquely Irish-American company, was the birthplace of progressive Irish dance which opened new avenues of artistic expression leading directly to commercial productions such as "Riverdance."

Not content to be simply the world's best, Howard, an Emmy Award-winning choreographer, has moved outside the framework of ethnicity, expanding the company's range and repertoire in a host of imaginative and new directions. By using Irish dance as an instrument and metaphor, Trinity crosses both cultural and disciplinary boundaries in important ways. The result is a thoroughly fresh and engaging artistic vision that goes beyond the source without losing touch with its essence.

Founding company members were trained at the prestigious Trinity Academy of Irish Dance (Chicago/Milwaukee). Together, dancers from this school have won an unprecedented 18 world titles for the United States at the annual World Irish Dance Championships in Ireland.

Trinity has met with great critical acclaim throughout the world, with sold-out tours in Europe and Asia and appearances in such distinguished U.S. venues as Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center and New York's Joyce and New Victory Theaters. The company has appeared in feature films by Disney, Dreamworks, Touchstone and Universal and on countless national television programs, including "Good Morning America," "CBS This Morning," "The Tonight Show," "The Conan O'Brien Show" and "Live with Regis." Over the past decade, the company has collaborated with many notable contemporary choreographers and musicians, developing more diverse movements and new genres of dance.

Tickets are $25 for the general public and $19 for students. Exclusive discount coupons are available at all KeyBank locations. Patrons may also present their Key To Your Town key tag at the box office to receive the same discount. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information, call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a Ticketfast location.