Booked out for weeks, Blanchardstown's new Draiocht Arts Centre was filled with families having a wonderful time at the Irish premiere of Ballet Ireland's Swan Lake on Saturday night.

Gunther Falusy has devised a small-scale, but utterly charming production, based on the Nureyev version of the Petipa/Ivanov original, always true to Tchaikovsky's music. With no jester in the Petipa acts to show off virtuosity at the expense of narrative and much of the old mime retained, the story-line is beautifully clear - from the prince's childlike delight in the queen's birthday present of a new bow, to his positive refusal to wed any of the foreign princesses paraded before him at the ball. The absurd communist-imposed happy ending is gone, though I regret the final note of despair, preferring the lovers to be united in death.

Though well-danced, the acting is paramount. Shinobu Sakaguchi is a lovely, bird-like Odette and a hard-as-nails, touch-me-not Odile, with Soren Niewelt as an impulsive prince, while Falusy himself is the evil Von Rothbart, whose moment of triumph at the end of act three is unusually strong.

The character dances in this act are spirited, with the Russian Dance reminiscent of the famous Georgian Dancers, whose tiny running steps under long skirts make them seem to glide on castors. In the Ivanov or white acts, sixteen swans filled the Draiocht stage to form a more than adequate corps.

The splendid costumes were unattributed (perhaps because designed for Wiener Ballett), as were the sets, Act One being a palace room overlooking the lake, though we must assume the fourth wall was all window, since the prince saw the swans fly high over the audience.

This production is a landmark for both Ballet Ireland and Irish ballet.