INGRID NACHSTERN,
Madam, - I must take issue with Patricia Quinn's statement (Opinion and Analysis, February 6th) when she says: "but in the main we were not ready to make decisions that would result in the closure of companies, which in most cases have taken years of hard and thankless work to build up".
Cork City Ballet received no funding this year, Ballet Ireland has had its funding cut by 80 per cent and the dance sector as a whole has suffered funding cuts to the tune of 23 per cent more than any other art form.
The only conclusion that I can come to is that the Arts Council is not only not interested in whether companies close or not, but more worryingly, it seems to have targeted dance in general, and ballet in particular, for total annihilation.
It is time for a re-think. The Irish public might be better served by a Ministry of Culture devoted to nurturing all art forms. - Yours, etc.,
INGRID NACHSTERN,
Choreographer and
Classical Ballet teacher,
Eglinton Road,
Dublin 4.