Stepping out in style for anniversary gala

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

The dance company Youth Ballet West (YBW) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a gala performance in the City’s Town Hall Theatre this Saturday, May 13, at 7pm and on Sunday at 5pm.

The group will present an eclectic programme featuring some of its most popular works to mark 10 years of providing top-quality dance in the West of Ireland.

Excerpts being performed will include the crazy Tea-Party from Alice Underground, the funky 50s from Teenage Kicks and Paddy Casey’s ‘Whatever Gets You True’ from the Arts Festival show, Strings.

And Youth Ballet West dancers will also demonstrate the company’s excellent training in classical ballet by performing Friends from Coppelia, Kitri’s glamorous variation from Don Quixote and excerpts from Swan Lake, together with the world premiere of a new work from YBW Artistic Director, Judith Sibley.  A Tribute to Haydn is a homage both to the composer and to the art of classical ballet itself, according to its creator.

Several other new works have been created by Judith and by company members for this gala celebration. These include Theme from Green Bushes which fuses contemporary and Irish dance; the raw emotional piece, Reflexions; the energetic Cats and, highlighting the company’s remarkable versatility, a tap-dance number.

With younger dance enthusiasts in mind, the company is presenting Once Upon a Time, which was created for the 2009 Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. This children’s ballet features all the classic fairy tale characters, including the Three Bears out of Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood and many more.

This weekend’s event is a double celebration for the ballet company and dance lovers in the West.

It marks a decade of top-class dance from YBW and a renewed recognition by the Arts Council of its work.  The group had been devastated last year when the Arts Council pulled its funding but a a delighted Judith is happy to confirm that the Council restored its grant to YBW this year, making it one of only three ballet companies in the country to receive Arts Council funding. Money also went to the professional ballet company Ballet Ireland (with which Judith performed in its early years,) and Irish National Youth Ballet, (with which she was a guest performer on many occasions).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.