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Aruba Coghlan

Pictured in 2008 with Lord Mayor, Brian Bermingham, are City Librarian Liam Ronayne, Aruba Coghlan and her mother, and Aruba's husband Dr Sean Pettit
Pictured in 2008 with Lord Mayor, Brian Bermingham, are City Librarian Liam Ronayne, Aruba Coghlan and her mother, and Aruba’s husband Dr Sean Pettit

Currently the Director of the Cork Dance Company, Aruba is a Fellow and Examiner with the International Dance Teachers Association, a Life Member of the Royal Academy of Dancing, the International Dance Teachers Association and The Imperial Society as well as a registered teacher with the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College London.

In the mid sixties, she held the first ever Royal Academy of Dancing Ballet examination in Cork (the following year Joan Denise Moriarty followed suit). In the next year, examinations with the Imperial Society and the International Dancing Teachers Association were added, covering Grades, Professional Performers and Teacher Examinations.
In 1966, Aruba formed the Cork Dance Company – 2016 will mark the 50th Golden Anniversary celebrations. The Company flourishes without any help from the Arts Council of Ireland, and is supported by Patrons of Firms and Friends who contribute yearly. Examination results are very high; over the years, the Company had had four Scholarship Nominations including one in 2014. The yearly three nightly Ballet production is usually a firm success, and is held in the Firkin Crane Centre, Shandon, Cork city. Everything aspect of the production is carried out on a voluntary basis from Aruba to the Smallest member.
It was in 1984 that Aruba was appointed an Examiner with the International Dance Teachers Association, the first such appointment in Ireland for Ballet, Tap, Modern, Theatre Craft, etc. examining in the Greater London Area and Ireland. And in 1985, she was appointed an Examiner for the Irish Board of Ballroom Dancing. In the late eighties, represented Ireland in Larisse Greece for Irish Dancing at the World Conference of Dance, and also read a paper on the History of Irish Dancing in Ireland. In the early nineties, she published a book: Twenty Irish Dances which is still selling worldwide. She donated a collection of rare dance books to Cork City Library, received by the then Lord Mayor, Councillor Brian Bermingham.
In 2010, 2012 and 2013, she received a Life Membership of The Royal Academy of Dancing, International Dance Teachers Association and The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.