Rhona Coughlan: 'You’ve got to move with what God gave you'

Having spina bifida didn't prevent the Cork woman from becoming a dancer, and she's also helping other people with disabilities to fulfil similar dreams 

Rhona Coughlan is artistic director of Inclusive Dance Cork. 

For Rhona Coughlan, a Cork dancer with spina bifida, rejection was the spur that motivated her to set up two inclusive dance companies. Now, this determined woman in her forties is the artistic director of Inclusive Dance Cork (IDC), a programme in its second year, under the umbrella of Dance Cork Firkin Crane.

When Coughlan, who uses a wheelchair, was 15, a dance teacher visited her school. She invited everyone, apart from Coughlan, to join her in a performance. “I was the only person with a disability in the school and the teacher wouldn’t allow me to participate. So I ended up, at eighteen, co-founding Wheels in Motion with two friends, who didn’t have disabilities. They were interested in inclusive work.”