DARRAH CARR

An artistic Director and Choreographer, Darrah holds an MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University. Named one of the "Top 100 Irish Americans of the Year” by Irish America Magazine, Carr grew up in Ohio where she and her three sisters enrolled in the Tim O'Hare School of Irish Dance as a means of celebrating their Irish heritage. Now based in New York City, Carr has been active for over a decade in both the Irish and modern dance communities as a choreographer, dancer, educator, and writer.

In addition to her work as Artistic Director of Darrah Carr Dance, Carr has collaborated independently with a number of esteemed artists. Carr served as the assistant choreographer to Sean Curran for the TONY award winning Broadway musical James Joyce's The Dead and has set original works on Trinity Irish Dance's Junior Company (Chicago), the Nassau Dance Theatre (Baldwin, Long Island) the Mise Eire Irish Dancers (Babylon, Long Island) and Hofstra University's Dance Majors Hempstead, Long Island). Carr has choreographed scenes for the Lite Theater Company's production of King Stag in Prospect Park and has coached actors for performances at The Producer's Club. She and her Dublin born Irish step dance partner, Niall O'Leary, have performed their duet act in a variety of locations ranging from Disney World to the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan. Carr has performed with BANSHEE, an Irish Women's Arts Collective, featured recently in a BBC documentary. She has also had the privilege of performing with many renowned musicians including Mick Moloney at New York's Town Hall, Natalie MacMaster at Prospect Park's Celebrate Brooklyn, and Arlo Guthrie and the Vanaver Caravan at West Point. Carr has performed on New York 1 and can also be seen tapping away in The Guru, a feature film starring Heather Graham.

Photo by: Lois Greenfield

Carr's own work is the subject of a New York University Master's documentary entitled Reel Steps and she has choreographed scenes for the independent film Right Foot/Left Foot�. Carr is an Adjunct Professor at Hofstra University and teaches at her own studio: ModERIN. She is associated with the Niall O'Leary School of Irish Dance, where she taught for seven years.

Carr frequently conducts Arts in Education programmes through Darrah Carr Dance, The School for Education in Dance, The Vanaver Caravan, and the Toledo Ballet School. Carr was chosen as the 2002 and 2005 Artist in the Schools for the Yard's educational programs in Chilmark, Massachusetts.

Carr is a respected scholar of Irish dance and has twice presented her research findings at conferences of the Congress on Research in Dance. She has lectured at The University of Limerick, New York University's Ireland House, Wesleyan University, Hofstra University, Eastern Connecticut State University, St. John's University, and Kingsborough Community College. Carr is a frequent contributor to Dance Magazine, Young Dancer, and Dancer, and is the North American Editor of The Dance Insider. She also serves on the Editorial Team of The Movement Research Performance Journal.

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