A New Life: A lover of language rediscovered ballet and found a new career. Sylvia Thompson reports
Growing up in Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s with an Ukrainian-born Polish father and an English mother may seem exotic now but Ingrid Nachstern (51) says "it was oppressive" and she spent much of her time trying to fit in. Nonetheless, as the only child of violinist and then leader of the National Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Nachstern and Evelyn Graham, she had a rich cultural life in her home in Ballsbridge, Dublin.
"My father spoke seven languages and I don't think I will ever match that but I was passionate about languages and learned French in school, before going on to study French and Italian at Trinity College Dublin and German at the Goethe Institute."
Graduating with an honours degree in modern languages in 1976, Nachstern realised her ambition to work in a translation agency almost immediately. "There were only about two or three translation agencies in Dublin at the time and I applied to them all. Askus Translation Agency replied and gave me a job. That was my dream job," she says. She went on to manage that agency and moved to another agency before travelling to Canada with her new husband so he could continue his medical training abroad.
"These were three very difficult years for me. The problem was that I was a bit of a workaholic and I didn't have any work permit while we were in Canada." Alongside voluntary work for the Canadian Red Cross (using her translation skills to write letters for people searching for relatives lost during the second World War) and at an Italian community centre, Nachstern decided to take ballet classes at the Toronto Dance Centre.
"I had done ballet from the age of three to 17 and hadn't liked it at all - in fact, I had asked my mother could I give it up when I was 12 and she said no but now I'm grateful to her as I realise I couldn't have gone back to ballet as an adult had I not taken classes for so long as a child," she says.
Her husband's further training in psychiatry brought the couple to Oxford in England where their eldest daughter, Beatrice, was born in 1987. "I looked after her, spending time going round university parks. No ballet. No translation. It was a very peaceful time," she says. Back in Dublin, their second daughter, Miranda, was born. The city's dearth of cultural activities struck her once again. "After living abroad, Dublin seemed like a narrow provincial town. It was far from the cosmopolitan city it is now," she says.
Family life took precedence for a number of years until one day, Nachstern came across a leaflet about adult ballet classes at Digges Lane Dance studio given by ex-Royal Ballet dancer Joanna Banks.
"I was 38 at the time and had just had a breast cancer scare. I was in a panic about what would happen to the children if I became ill but then, I decided if I find out I'm okay, I'll do teacher training in ballet."
Six weeks later, her test results were clear and from 1993 to 1996, Nachstern completed the Royal Academy of Dance part-time teacher training course and opened her own ballet school in Sandymount, Dublin the following year.
"I ran classes for children and an evening class for adults which was non-competitive. I've had a band of loyal supporters in that class since it started."
The death of her father in 1999 proved to be another turning point for Nachstern who found herself "almost in a trance" choreographing a ballet based on the Concert Waltz by Faust. "My father's death was absolutely devastating for me," she explains, adding that in retrospect, she now sees how through her grief, she found a new creative energy.
Since that first dance piece, entitled Swirling Leaves, Nachstern went on to choreograph two more pieces, Pilot's Wife - aka Stepford Lady - and Bow-Tie Like Chioni.
"Each time, I thought I had created a masterpiece but when I showed the pieces to a few carefully picked friends, it was the third one they showed enthusiasm for. So I rang Willie White, the director of the Project Theatre, and asked could I see him for seven and a half minutes [ the piece was seven minutes long]. He gave me the Project Cube to show the piece in for an invited audience."
The performance of this piece led to Nachstern being chosen to be part of the Irish Choreographers New Work Platform later that year, which led to a sequence of events - from a production of a new piece, Peace and Demons - A Victorian Experience, performed by Joanna Banks and Dara Pierce in the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2003, to next month's production of Ante-Room at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire as part of the five-day long dance and physical theatre season, NovemberFest.
"Each time, I've moved the goal posts. Firstly, my ambition was for my work to be shown on stage. Then, I wanted it to be seen by a paying audience. Now, I want lots of people to see my work. And, sometime, I'd like to tour with a show. As my children are getting older, I've got the benefit of more time. Dancing and choreography has been very liberating for me. Twenty or 30 years ago, I simply wouldn't have had the courage to do this."