Irish Times critics review Alison Moyet at the Olympia Theatre and the Irish National Youth Ballet at the O'Reilly Theatre

Alison Moyet
Olympia Theatre, Dublin

That voice cuts a sultry Dietrich-like shape into the darkness of a wet night in January. It's an instrument ideally suited to the rekindling of old love affairs, with its lived-in, lacquered layers of experience adding immeasurably to the pathos. Alison Moyet makes no bones about the fact that she "does grim", and the fact is, she does it better than most. All Cried Out, Don't Goand Almost Bluetrain a sharp focus on love's messier underbelly, not so much championing the underdog as simply relating its sorry tale.

Moyet is a torch song singer who would be just as comfortable in a jazz club in Paris as she is in the musky music hall of the Olympia. Listening to Man In The Wings, an ode to the fleeting, magical synchrony that can unite a singer and a listener, it seems that her past with Vince Clarke and Yazoo is another country.

Sprinkling the old favourites amid her strong, newer material taken from The Turn, her first album in 5 years, Moyet knows instinctively how to handle a love song. One More Time, her latest single, is a master class in restrained eloquence, while Firereeks of a baroque quality with its haughty, spare arrangements.

Her band plays with a rigour and intensity that suggests a quintet relishing the collective energy of this long-awaited tour. Moyet ventures to cover Windmills Of Your Mind, and her pianist handles it with the languid intensity that was once the sole domain of Elton John in his Song For Guydays.

The rapturous reception she received from an almost full house seemed to catch Moyet by surprise, and she rollicked in the glory of hearing them sing songs almost a quarter of a century old. She may not have indulged them completely, omitting Invisible, Is This Loveand Weak In The Presence Of Beauty, but Moyet promised a Yazoo reunion in June: enough to keep appetites whetted, after a gorgeously sweaty 100 minutes of fine music.
Siobhán Long

Irish National Youth Ballet
O'Reilly Theatre, Dublin

For children who pin their hopes on becoming a ballerina or danseur, Irish National Youth Ballet provides a valuable first step. The audition-only company offers performance opportunities for those pondering a ballet career and watching their latest show was like witnessing a microcosm of the dance world coming to life.

Fledgling performers turned and leapt with confidence and passion, sharing the stage with more seasoned dancers and international guest artists. The commingling of students and professionals resulted in a joyful, ebullient evening.

Stephen Brennan's simple but well-crafted dance for younger members of the company, Norwegian Wedding, featured them galloping and curtsying with aplomb, re-enacting some of Norway's lively wedding traditions such as a tree-stump dance by the bridal couple and a hat dance for the best man, played by a comical Julian Capolei. Set to music by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, it stood out for its cultural references, but Charles Czarny's dynamic Concerto Grossohighlighted the programme's triple bill.

The seven-part ballet, set to two concerti grossi by Handel, whimsically paid a nod to athletics. Some dancers performed in track suits, crisply running with knees as high as chests, before giving way to others emulating ice skaters practising their spins and falls, and eventually soccer players kicking around the field.

In one scene, Aoife Walsh, Niall Madden and Paul Kinsella became tightrope walkers, deftly navigating an imaginary rope while carrying white umbrellas for balance. Sliding into full splits and then teasing each other into stepping off the rope, they displayed clear, crisp gestures and increasingly animated personalities.

Concerto Grossoillustrates how ballet as an art form can stretch beyond just storytelling and likely had the younger dancers imitating its moves in the wings. Finally, the accomplished Russian guest artists Luiza Garieva and Evgeny Truposkiadi showed off their technical precision in the Nutcracker pas de deux, culminating a production that felt like one of those time-lapse films. It was easy to imagine the opening Norwegian Weddingflower girls progressing into this idyllic Sugar Plum Fairy, with the rest of the evening's programme illustrating what might happen as they train in between.
Christie Seaver