THE ballet dancers are warming up on the stage of the National Concert Hall. They're going to perform from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. In the foyer the first ambassadors are beginning to arrive.
A Wyoming cowboy walks in wearing a stetson, pointed boots and a little gold bucking bronco on his lapel. It's US ambasswador Mike Sullivan with wife, Jane, and friend Susan Massey. Austrian ambassador Paul Leifer, in Ireland less than two weeks, has invited "over 40" guests from the embassies to the Gala Ballet Spectacular. It's the first time he has met many of them - "It's a blind date, kind of," says the man with the stetson.
Belgian ambassador Baron Alain Guillaume and wife Baroness Anne-Marie, walk up next. There isn't a wrinkled shirt or an unpressed pair of trousers in sight. Portuguese ambassador Joao de Vallera and wife Margarida, are immaculate. Indian ambassador Chokila Iyer is wearing a long black woollen shawl over her ensemble. She chats to Estonian charges d'affaires Triin Parts.
Swiss ambassador Willy Hold is there with wife Eleanor. "The Concert Hall is my favourite place to spend an evening in Dublin," he says. He doesn't give even a look-in to The Sugar Club - "at my age," he says with a raised eye-brow, "it's cumbersome."
Young Dubliner Deva Pardue (11) rushes in with her father, Tyrone Pardue. She's not sure if she'd like to be a ballet dancer and doesn't go to classes any more. "I might start again," she says.
Back-stage, dancer Lucy Hickey, from Rathmines, is expecting her mother and father, Cliona and Oliver Hickey, and brother Pierce. She and Olivier Foure continue to warm-up for the performance.
Finally, silence descends on the hall, the lights dim, the music swells and the night begins. The Ballet Ireland troupe is currently touring but it will be back in Dublin for two performances tomorrow at the NCH.