Hire Triallta
Performances
We love performing! We have kids and adults available to dance. Please contact Faye at 815-545-6823 or lfcruse@gmail.com to inquire about hosting Triallta dancers at your event. If you contact us at least one year in advance, you'll recieve a discount. Any events with less than three months' notice may be subject to a reasonable late fee.
Education
Full programs, private and semi-private lessons as well as workshops are available year-round. Please contact Faye at 815-545-6823 or lfcruse@gmail.com to inquire, and she will set you up with an instructor and programming that matches your needs.
For information about the history of Irish dancing or other more academic inquiries, please contact Ashley at 815-931-8298 or ashleymidd@gmail.com.
Why Triallta?
Performances and classes for kids, adults & families
Triallta began as a creative outlet for its two directors and their fellow Joliet Junior College students. It quickly grew to encompass Faye’s youth classes in Lemont and Orland Park. Sticking to our roots as we expand, Triallta continues to offer equality of opportunity to youth and adults. We are dedicated to joy, hard work, and balance.
Encouragement, acceptance, creativity
Your journey with us is just that—yours. Though we do prefer you get outside of the classroom to perform or help throw candy at a parade, neither performing nor competing is required of Triallta dancers. (Dedication to improvement, however, is expected from all of our dancers.)
Never too late to start!
Are you a teenager or an adult? It’s never too late to bring joy into your life through Irish dancing. And we mean it! Both of our directors began as teenagers. Don’t worry or overthink—join in now and have a blast!
Roots and Wings
The root of Triallta is the Joliet Junior College Irish Dancers, a popular club with a three-year run at the college. Through JJCID, our instructors and former members (including those who are now members of Triallta) have:
- Visited the New York City Irish Dance Festival — taking workshops with Niall O’Leary and Donny Golden
- Participated in Relay for Life at Lewis University
- Performed many times for the JJC Spring Fling
- Performed twice at the JJC Madri-Gala Christmas Dinner
- Danced at other local events, such as Saint Margaret Mary Church’s Celtic Tradition Concert in Naperville
Since becoming the Triallta Irish Dance Company, we have performed at Gaelic Park, Joliet Union Station and Ruffled Feathers Golf Club, and competed at the First in Flight Féile in Dayton, Ohio. We had our first public performance under the Triallta banner with youth and adult dancers at the Manhattan Irish Fest in 2006. And that’s just the beginning!
Our Directors
Lauren Faye Cruse
Faye began instructing classes in 2003 at The Dance Workshop in Orland Park and the Nazarene Arts Academy in Lemont. She continues to be the primary instructor at our Lemont location.
College & Career
Faye is a full-time student, studying Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she currently works as a coordinator for Intern Housing. She can be contacted through lfcruse@gmail.com and (815) 545-6823.
Ashley Middleton
Ashe began teaching for the Park District of Oak Park in Fall 2008. She also taught an all-boys class in New Lenox in Spring 2006.
College & Career
Ashe is a full-time student, studying Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and having studied abroad at the Hochschule Luzern—Gestaltung & Kunst in Switzerland. She has maintained Diochra.com—Discover Irish dance! since 1998, which has been featured twice in Irish Dancing Magazine. An Oak Park resident, she currently teaches in Oak Park and River Forest and can be contacted at ashleymidd@gmail.com.
Our Instructors
Kelly Kohnen
Kelly Kohnen joined our team for the Spring 2009 semester. Kelly is the founder of Cosa Meara, the first Collegiate Irish Dance Network, and taught in Oak Park while Ashley was away in Switzerland.
College & Career
Kelly is a graduate student in the University of Chicago's Department of Neurobiology, where she works as a Research Technologist. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her focus was Chemistry, Integrative Biology and Spanish. Kelly can be contacted through kellykohnen@gmail.com.
Flickr Photo Gallery
Learn Irish Dancing
Nazarene Arts Academy
12725 Bell Road
Lemont, Illinois
708-349-0454, ex. 32
chicagofirstnaz.org
Fox Center, Park District of Oak Park
640 S. Oak Park Ave at Jackson St
(2 blocks north of Oak Park Blue Line)
Oak Park, Illinois
oakparkparks.com — Fox Center