Looking back at Belfast International Ballet Festival’s gala performance (The MAC)

The traffic management changes for the Fleadh were just coming into effect as I walked down through Belfast city centre to The MAC on Saturday 1 August. The streets were already more animated than usual, tourists looked relaxed, and there was a lilt of fiddles on the air, not yet tinged with the hum of outdoor generators.

Tucked in before the larger cultural extravaganza began was the Belfast International Ballet Festival. I’ve never made it along to review one of the big ballet shows at the Grand Opera House (though the news that they don’t always use a live orchestra these days also puts me off).

My last foray into the world of ballet was attending the annual performance of Amber Gordon’s School of Dance in Hillsborough around 15 years ago as a parent. Ballet is a form of dance that rarely makes it into musical theatre, not even as contemporary ballet, even though many of the dancers will have studied ballet at some point.

Normally, unless you’re taking part and attending classes, there’s little public evidence in venue programmes that ballet is an artform that anyone continues beyond primary school. But on that mid-summer weekend there was plenty of evidence on The MAC’s main stage that ballet is alive and well.  

I’m an irregular and uneducated reviewer of dance shows, mainly dropping into performances staged during Belfast International Arts Festival, the national dance company Luail, or work that Eileen McCrory or Dylan Quinn have choreographed. RIP ponydance and their legendary Pony Panto Christmas Show and an unforgettable Ponies Don’t Play Football production in 2016).

The short Belfast International Ballet Festival shone a light on local talent, as well as featuring dancers from elsewhere in the island. The final performance of the weekend was a gala night that included dancers from the High Points Youth Ballet and S-MB.

The first act danced along to traditional classical music, dominated by Russian composers. While I might not know a plié from a tendu, it was obvious that there was much strength, poise and grace on show. Powerful moves yet delicate and so well balanced.

While hair tied back in a bun was the order of the day, it was good to see that the somewhat austere, disciplinarian vibe of professional ballet could adapt at this level so wearing glasses was possible, and one dancer totally rocked a fringe … apparently Anna McCoy’s trademark perk of being a professional ballet dancer according to an audience member in the know!

After the interval stunning pieces of contemporary ballet by older dancers (neon costumes and hair worn down in Reflections, choreographed by Luc Burns) demonstrating emotional intensity as well as the precision of their movements, interwoven with more classical fare from larger groups of dancers.

While ballet is regularly be portrayed on film as elitist and upper class, what was on show on the MAC stage was athletic, graceful, with the ensemble dancers creating beautiful visual backdrops against which the principal performers could move. Professional dancers Luc Burns (Andersonstown) and Leigh Alderson (Portadown) joined in after the interval, adding lifts and a hint of romance to the storytelling. Zara Turpie with her high kicking tambourine work added a new twist to ballet musicianship!

Interval conversations took in the difference in arts funding north and south of the border (about four times more government investment in the south) and how that affects the ballet scene.

While the Northern Ireland audience demand for dance of any kind has been nurtured and grown a lot over the last decade, it is still small. One of the joys of the ballet festival’s gala evening was to see the joy and respect light up the faces of the people sitting near me: many of them ballet teachers and students from across the island, revelling in being able to watch their peers perform. 

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