The Pavilion Theatre, in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, celebrated its fifth birthday with champagne and chocolate cake this week, and the party took place on the opening of NovemberFest, the theatre's five-day festival of dance.
"Tonight shows how important the Pavilion is in bringing this important international dance to Ireland, and the growing confidence of dance and the growing public for dance in Ireland," said the choreographer and artistic director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre, John Scott, before a performance of Running Wild and Souvenirs by the Canadian dance company, The Holy Body Tattoo.
Among those at the opening performance of NovemberFest were Catherine Nunes and Marina Rafter, of the International Dance Festival; Pia Repe, manager of Finnish dance company Flow, which also performed at the festival; Finola Cronin, the dance specialist in the Arts Council; and Chris Yon, a recent recipient of the Bessie Award, the prestigious US dance honour. Ingrid Nachstern, of Night Star Dance Company, was pleased to have her work performed during the festival.
The Pavilion's artistic director, Polly O'Loughlin, hopes to attract up to 700 people to the dance performances.
"I love dance and physical theatre," said O'Loughlin. "And that's something that people are a bit afraid of."
Wolfgang Hoffman, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, who was among those to dance at the inaugural NovemberFest last year, was especially pleased that Andrew Dawson, his friend and former dance collaborator, is to perform tonight. Dawson's Absence and Presence is a one-man show about the death of his father.
Interest in dance is strong in Ireland, according to Joanna Banks, ballet dancer and artistic director of the independent College of Dance in Monkstown.
"We've got quite a plethora of small contemporary dance companies now . . . I have 35 young dancers," she said, but "the sad thing is we are grooming them for export. We are light-years behind the rest of Europe where dance is concerned."Lang Lang of Shenyang shines
Lang Lang, the young concert pianist virtuoso from China, packed out the National Concert Hall this week for his solo recital. President Mary McAleese and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, were among those who heard works by Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Liszt.
"As well as being a superb pianist, he's a master showman," said Rory Bailey, from Rathmines, who was there with his wife, Joan.
"He's young, he's got a very attractive personality and he has a fantastic technique," said Dr Barra Boydell, of NUI Maynooth's music department.
English students Ying Xin and Xiaolei Gao, who is from the same city as Lang Lang, Shenyang, in north-east China, were delighted to be at the recital.
Deirdre Grier Delaney, of DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, was looking forward to hearing him play for the first time.
Writer and therapist Mary O'Conor, whose husband, concert pianist John O'Conor, is currently touring in China, came along to hear the young pianist for herself.
Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin, of DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, said he was "intrigued by him [Lang Lang] as a performer . . . Normally I like to see fidelity to the composer's work, but he has a knack of drawing you into viewing him as a performer as much as being brilliant at interpreting works."
Others at the sell-out recital, which kicked off the NCH's winter season of Irish Times celebrity concerts, included artists Brian Bourke and Jay Murphy; Michael Brennan, chief executive officer of Eagle Star Life, and his wife, Clare; Frank Casey, president of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and his wife, Alison; and Bríd Collins, mother of pianists Finghin and Dearbhla Collins.
The nice side of mice
Rachel Barrett (six) said she knew "a bit" about the story of Town Mouse, Country Mouse at the premiere this week in the Ark in Temple Bar, Dublin.
"No, it's not scary," she said reassuringly. Is it a love story? "Sort of," she said wisely, not ruling love out completely. Brother Danny (five) and their mother, Fionnuala Barrett, from Templeogue, were there too, with their friend, Beulah Fox (seven).
Does it have a happy ending? "Sort of," said Daniel Culleton (seven). "But if it [the play] is different to the story in the book," he added, pausing in truthful perplexity, "well, then I don't know." He beamed with delight then and looked for reassurance to his father, Jim Culleton, artistic director of Fishamble Theatre Company.
Shannon Emily Higgins (2¾) was "busy looking for a mouse but she can't find one", said her mother, Louise Higgins, from Tallaght. Margaret and Terry Rowland, from Celbridge, Co Kildare, waited calmly with their three children - Conor (will be seven on Wednesday), James (five) and Olivia (three) - for the play, which has its origins in Aesop's fables, to begin.
"The play's genesis was in seeing a line of infants going into a classroom and seeing the different nationalities lining up . . . and I wondered if they really appreciate their cultural difference," said Philip Hardy, artistic director and founder of Barnstorm Theatre Company, who commissioned the play from Medb Lambert. The play's outlook, "if anything, would be looking at accepting that one's culture is a personal thing, that it's unique in itself", he said.
Barnstorm Theatre Company is performing Town Mouse. Country Mouse in Kilkenny, Portlaoise, Waterford, Castleblayney, Mullingar, Castlebar and Blanchardstown. For details tel: 056-7751266/ www.barnstorm.ie
Epicurean chapter and verse
For publisher and editor Trevor White, reviewing restaurants "is still a labour of love". His party to celebrate publication of the newest edition of The Dubliner 100 Best Restaurants, was held in the Morrison Hotel, which has just been revamped to the tune of €19.5 million.
The most popular restaurant in Dublin, according to White's guide, is Chapter One. This award-winning establishment on Parnell Square was represented by manager Declan Maxwell.
The party attracted other restaurateurs, friends and one former school headmaster. Michael Whelan, retired headmaster of Sandford Park School, where White was a student, was there with his wife, Ann.
Gloria Navarrete, deputy head of mission at the Chilean embassy, and her husband, Dr John Heckmatt, sang the praises of her country's Santa Rita wine. "It is full of body and flavour and that reflects the country very well," she said.
Others at the party included Conor O'Dea and girlfriend Chrystelle Dufour; friends Amy Timmreck, from Seattle, and Sandra Borchardt, from Brazil; Terry Pennington, commercial director of Gilbey's Wines; and Trevor Browne, whose two restaurants, Tribeca (in Ranelagh) and the Canal Bank Café (on Upper Leeson Street), both make The Dubliner 100 Best Restaurants list.
"The key to the guide's success is that it's very funny and cleverly written," said Emily Hourican, editor of Hospitality Ireland and founding editor of the Dubliner magazine.
"It has a nice acidic tone to it," said Eoin Quinlan, a TCD chemist.