Dancing queen

It was one of Joan Denise Moriarty's strongest beliefs that the world of art should never stand still. “My policy has always been to evolve continuously; never to stagnate: always to change." she once said. "You must be aware of the whole world changing and turning and decide how you wish to express this.” These sentences epitomise the Irish choreographer and musician who founded the Cork Ballet Company in 1942 before launching two professional ballet companies and the Firkin Crane Dance Centre. From fusing the folk style of Irish dance and that of classical ballet in The Playboy of the Western World with music by The Chieftains to creating four ballets with composer, Aloys Fleischmann, where traditional Irish dance and music were combined with classical forms of both disciplines, the arts world was both inspired and mesmerised by Miss Moriarty.

Among the highlights of this year’s centenary celebrations of her birth, Cork Ballet Company will stage a new adaptation of The Playboy of the Western World from Thursday, March 22nd to Saturday, March 24th in the Firkin Crane. Patricia Crosbie, who will choreograph the performance, believes Moriarty’s talent for turning a “wordy” production into a dance was something rare. “This was back in 1978, so everything was very theatrical,” says the former Irish National Ballet ballerina. “It is a very wordy play, so it was very difficult for her to do... but she did it.”

Following its success at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Noel Pearson brought Playboy to New York for a two-week run before moving on to London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. In what was only her second year with the professional outfit, Patricia remembers being asked by Miss Moriarty to step into the role of Widow Quin. “She just said ‘yes, you’re doing it’. However, I was 19 at the time and much thinner than what I am now. I had to wear padding and make-up to make myself look older along with dying my hair... not what a 19 year-old wants to do,” she laughs.