Forty Years, One Very Special Evening: Ballet Cymru Celebrates at The Riverfront

Some birthdays deserve considerably more than a cake and a round of applause. For BALLET CYMRU, reaching 40 offered an opportunity to bring together the things that have sustained this remarkable Newport company: dance, music, collaboration and a belief that the arts should open doors. At The Riverfront last night, those ingredients made for a very special evening.

With the Mayor of Newport and a host of special guests attending, there was an unmistakable sense of occasion. This was a celebration with significance well beyond the stage: a chance for the city to recognise a company that has carried Newport’s name across Wales, around Britain and overseas, while continuing to invest in the people on its doorstep.

For us, the pleasure lay in that combination of artistic celebration and local pride. Four decades is an extraordinary achievement for any independent arts organisation. For a ballet company that began with modest resources and has repeatedly found ways to keep creating, touring and teaching, it is a milestone that deserves proper recognition.

The anniversary programme brought together Ballet Cymru, National Youth Dance Wales and live musicians, connecting established artists with a younger generation. That choice said a great deal about the company. A birthday can be an excuse to look backwards; this celebration also made room for the people who will shape what happens next.

At the musical heart of the occasion was Welsh harpist CATRIN FINCH. Her appearance was a particularly fitting part of the birthday celebrations, given her longstanding relationship with Ballet Cymru as both collaborator and patron. Sharing the live music for Woven with Irish violinist AOIFE NÍ BHRIAIN, she helped make this an occasion where music had its own presence and importance.

Woven draws on the duo’s album Double You, bringing Welsh and Irish musical voices into the same creative conversation. Even its title seems appropriate for an anniversary: threads brought together, relationships strengthened, different contributions becoming part of something shared. For a company whose history is so closely connected with artistic partnerships, it was a meaningful work to include.

There is something especially valuable about presenting dance with musicians playing live. It brings the making of the music into the audience’s experience and reminds us that collaboration involves people listening and responding to one another. On a night devoted to celebrating a living, working company, that human connection felt entirely right.

The programme also included Sensible Co-Existence, created for Ballet Cymru by Marcus J Willis, Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. Including a new commission in a 40th birthday programme is a statement of confidence. The company was celebrating its longevity while continuing to make space for fresh choreography and the perspectives of visiting artists.

That matters because an anniversary programme should tell us something about its subject. Ballet Cymru’s identity has developed through a willingness to explore, collaborate and give classical ballet a place in contemporary Welsh cultural life. Bringing Willis’s work into this celebration reflected that continuing curiosity and the company’s interest in what another creative voice can bring to its dancers.

National Youth Dance Wales contributed ADFYW, by Welsh choreographer Osian Meilir. Its inclusion widened the focus of the evening, recognising that the future of dance depends on opportunities for younger performers. Alongside the Ballet Cymru Boys Company, advertised as Thursday’s curtain-raiser, it placed youth development within the celebration itself, where it belonged.

This is an essential part of Ballet Cymru’s story. The productions are the most visible expression of its work, but behind them sit classes, training, school partnerships and projects designed to make participation possible. Through its Duets programme and wider engagement work, the company has spent years addressing the barriers that can prevent young people from discovering dance.

That history gives a birthday like this extra meaning. The achievement is measured in performances and productions, certainly, but also in first classes, new confidence and opportunities that might otherwise never have existed. A company can make its home in a city through an address; it earns a deeper place there through the relationships it builds.

Founded in 1986, Ballet Cymru has grown from a small Newport organisation into an internationally touring company. Its journey has included awards, ambitious collaborations and periods requiring considerable resilience. Forty years later, the connection between professional performance and community participation remains central to what makes it distinctive.

Last night gave Newport a welcome opportunity to celebrate all of that. The special guests brought recognition, the programme brought different generations and creative voices together, and Finch’s live music helped give the occasion its particular character. Above all, there was the pleasure of marking a significant birthday in the company’s home city.

There is another opportunity to join the celebrations at The Riverfront tonight, Friday 30th October, at 7.30pm. For anyone who has followed Ballet Cymru over the years, it is a chance to share in an important milestone. For newcomers, it offers an introduction to the collaborations and commitment that have helped sustain the company.

Happy 40th birthday, Ballet Cymru. Newport has good reason to be proud.

Programme and booking information: Ballet Cymru 40*. Check current availability before travelling.

40 Things to Know About Ballet Cymru

Its beginnings and achievements

1. Ballet Cymru was founded in 1986.
2. Its home city is Newport, South Wales.
3. Founder and Artistic Director Darius James is himself from Newport.
4. James trained at The Royal Ballet School.
5. His performing career included Northern Ballet.
6. The company began with a £1,000 Enterprise Allowance Scheme grant, according to its own history.
7. After initial project support, it survived 13 years without funding.
8. It received project funding from the Arts Council of England in 2001.
9. Project funding from the Arts Council of Wales followed in 2002.
10. It became an Arts Council of Wales portfolio organisation in 2011.

People and recognition

11. Ballet Cymru won the Audience Award at the 2006 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.
12. Its Best Independent Company nominations included 2012, 2014 and 2015.
13. It won Best Dance Production at the Theatre Critics of Wales Awards in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
14. Darius James received an OBE in 2019, for services to ballet and community dance.
15. Amy Doughty joined the company in 1996, initially as a dancer.
16. She became its Ballet Mistress in 2001.
17. She became its Education Officer in 2006.
18. In 2009, she received the Jane Attenborough Dance in Education Fellowship through the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
19. Cerys Matthews is a company patron and artistic collaborator.
20. Catrin Finch is also a patron and collaborator.

Opening doors to dance

21. Its national training programme Duets began in 2012.
22. Duets particularly supports young people facing economic or other barriers to dance.
23. The programme offers free weekly ballet classes in participating areas.
24. It also offers a complementary style, such as contemporary or street dance.
25. Duets works with local schools, helping provide familiar places to learn.
26. It partners with theatres to offer performance and mentoring opportunities.
27. The company runs adult ballet classes at its Newport studios.
28. Ballet Cymru 3 provides inclusive ballet classes.
29. Its Pre Professional Programme is a nine-month course for graduate dancers.
30. Its Boys Company offers half-term intensives and performance opportunities.

Productions, partnerships and the birthday programme

31. Its repertoire includes Giselle and Cinderella.
32. It has created work inspired by Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs.
33. DREAM reimagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
34. Composer Frank Moon wrote the original score for DREAM.
35. The company’s production archive includes Poems and Tiger Eggs.
36. Sleeping Beauty is part of its 2026 touring programme.
37. The 40th birthday programme includes Woven, with live music by Catrin Finch and Aoife Ní Bhriain.
38. Sensible Co-Existence was created for the company by Marcus J Willis.
39. National Youth Dance Wales contributes ADFYW, choreographed by Osian Meilir, to the Newport birthday programme.
40. Ballet Cymru has joined a pointe-shoe recycling scheme, turning worn shoes into materials for new products.

Find our more about BALLET CYMRU HERE.