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Ireland is modern.

Article Excerpt
IRELAND HAS changed remarkably," wrote Diana Theodores. "It has gone from being an agricultural, almost third-world economy steeped in Catholicism and nationalism to suddenly being the hot spot in Europe, full of technological advances within a global economy." Theodores, Ireland's first regular dance critic, who wrote for the Sunday Tribune from 1985-1992, describes Ireland's recent economic growth as "having been the beneficiary of European Union money, and savvy tax laws that have encouraged foreign companies to invest, There is reverse emigration, as loads of Irish are coming back now that the country is so prosperous."

MAKING DANCE TRACKS

According to Theodores, increased prosperity has led to a boom in arts funding that did not exist during her tenure at the Sunday Tribune. At that time, she covered dance as an art form in settings ranging from ceilis (social dance and music evenings) to fledgling companies, to ballet schools on dairy farms. "It was a very interesting and eccentric mix that has now been transformed," she recalls. "Ireland has always had pioneers, people who have been working for twenty-plus years to make a contemporary dance culture, but they were on the margins. Now dance is more mainstream."

One such pioneer is Loretta Yurick, co-artistic director of Dance Theatre of Ireland, a contemporary dance company based in Don Laoghaire, County Dublin....

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