Unlike its Belfast counterpart, the Dublin Theatre Festival continued to ignore ballet, though Carmen at the RDS helped satisfy Dublin's insatiable appetite for flamenco, despite the fact that we saw better flamenco dancing at the Olympia in the 1950s and 1960s. Outside the festival, Dublin had highly creditable, if somewhat cramped, performances in the National Concert Hall in May of Swan Lake and a much-truncated Don Quixote by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, while the Perm State Ballet of Russia gave a concert programme as well as La Sylphide, followed by Act Three of Swan Lake in the Olympia in October. Limerick's Belltable presented the versatile Swiss Tanz Ensemble in February, while in Cork the enterprising Mary Brady brought to the Firkin Crane Wayne McGregor's Random Dance Company in May and the Leat Dror Nir Ben Gal Company from Israel earlier this month. Better still, she commissioned work from Irish choreographers as well as presenting many Irish companies. Fabulous Beast Dance Company's double bill of Sunday Lunch and The Good People by Irish choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, which packed the Samuel Beckett Theatre during the Dublin Fringe Festival and kept the audience laughing, even leaving the theatre.
Next year looks good for Irish dance.
Irish Modern Dance Theatre presents a new piece by artistic director John Scott at Dublin's Project in October. Dance Theatre of Ireland's major production will be Soul Sur- vivor by artistic directors Robert Connor and Loretta Yurick. Ballet Ireland opens a six-week nationwide tour in Cork on February 17th, ending at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on March 28th. Extravaganza 2 is mainly choreographed by Gunther Falusy and set to Strauss, Mahler and Schubert. Mary Nunan, artistic director of Daghdha Dance Company, and Adrienne Brown, artistic director of New Balance Dance Company are also developing pieces during the Righting Dance Project.