A former teacher at Joan Denise Moriarty's ballet school in Cork, who later danced with Dublin City Ballet, will next Tuesday emulate her former boss in launching an Irish ballet company at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. Ballet Ireland, the company Anne Maher established a year ago with her Viennese husband Gunther Falusy, aims to re-establish classical ballet in Ireland with a full-time company, the first since the demise of Irish National Ballet in February 1989.
It also aims to promote interest in ballet amongst all age-groups and across all social divides, to establish Ireland as a recognised and valued contributor to the international ballet scene, to provide work for young Irish dancers and to bring home Irish dancers currently working abroad.
It has already succeeded in its latter two aims. When it opens a week's run next Tuesday with Ballet Extravaganza (giving highlights from the three Tchaikovsky classics, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as Offenbach's La Belle Epoque, Albinoni's Adagio in Colour and several other ballets), the cast of 11 will include Judith Sibley, Aoife McGrath, Clare Rooney, Lucy Hickey and Gavin de Paor from Dublin and Nicola Murphy from Bangor, talented young dancers most of whom completed their training overseas and have been dancing mainly with companies abroad.
Ballet Ireland has the advantage of already possessing sets and costumes for these ballets, as they were formerly used by Wiener Ballett Theatre, of which Gunther Falusy was artistic director and choreographer, while Anne Maher was principal ballerina.
She is not, however, dancing in the Gaiety, being fully occupied with the joint artistic direction. After nearly 10 years without a full-time ballet company, Irish dance fans will be hoping the company succeeds in its ambitious aims.