MICHAEL SEAVER,
Sir, I must respond to Carolyn Swift's rebuke (April 26th) of my recent writings on ballet in Ireland. Although the headline (a sub-editor's, not mine) asks "Do we need Ballet Ireland?", the article was a more general questioning on how to develop ballet in Ireland. The writing was mindful of our own traditions in ballet and the difficulties that international companies are now experiencing. At no point in the article do I claim that "ballet classics should be considered dead and buried" and it is outrageous to suggest that the article "made it clear that Mr Seaver dislikes all traditional classical ballet".
These statements are then used to denigrate my review of Ballet Ireland's production of The Sleeping Beauty. It is suggested I have some kind of an anti-classical ballet bias and that I was "hardly likely to review the production with enthusiasm". In fact my review couldn't be more pro-classical ballet; I wrote that Petipa's original received rough justice through Gunther Falusy's re-interpretation and the shortcomings of the première that I viewed in Driaocht led to a less than enjoyable experience for any ballet lover.
I greatly respect Carolyn Swift's extensive contribution to ballet through the pages of this newspaper, but her attack on my commitment to classical ballet is unwarranted and mistaken. I re-iterate my view that ballet development in this country is rudderless at present. Unfortunately it will remain so as long as the debate fails to rise above the personal. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL SEAVER, Kildare Co Kildare.