Raw energy and talent were whipping up a storm on the windy roof of the Pavilion Theatre in D·n Laoghaire on Sunday to kick off the First Irish Youth Dance Festival.
Director J.J. Formento was a mini-tornado all on his own, thrilled that the festival - a one-day showcase of 60 young dancers from all over Ireland - sold out at the final hour. "We had to put in an extra row of seats," he trilled.
Irish band Dejimbe kept the mood upbeat with African drums in a pre-show performance.
Mary Hickson, production manager of this week's Festival of World Cultures, was bursting to talk about the African JuJu Band, whose members all met in Ireland and who made their public dΘbut yesterday.
"They usually play African weddings, but we asked Amulundun band leader if he had a demo and sent round a courier," said Hickson. "He couldn't find the tape, so he recorded another one there and then. He plugged the keyboard in and started singing . . . You can hear the doorbell, and him going out talking to the courier, but the music is brilliant."
Director Anne Campbell-Crawford's girls in the Irish National Youth Ballet won't know what hit them when she unleashes her secret weapon: ballet master Gavin de Paor, who is returning to Dublin after several years wowing the crowds in St Petersburg and Keil, Germany.
"He is young and handsome and they'll all fall in love with him - and all come to class," she said.
German cellist Eckart Schwarz-Schulz, who plays with the Irish National Symphony Orchestra, did a duet with dancer Niamh Condron for the dΘbut of her company, This Tortion. Niamh is just back from a scholarship trip to the Impulze-Tanz Festival in Vienna.
South African Anica Louw was up from the sticks with her troupe, LD Dance: "They're classically trained, it's contemporary dance and the music is African."
She added that she has a theatre, ballet studio and farm down in the depths of Co Longford - now that's multi-tasking for you.
Ethereal dancer Rachel Wynne breezed past, trailed by a gaggle of six-year-olds - "my fans". Rachel (19) had to drop out of university and dancing after suffering from ME, but on Sunday she made her solo comeback.
"I was on my back for six months," she said. "It's a miracle - I didn't think I'd be dancing for years. You have to mention Elaine Shaw. She is a goddess."