Keeping Elwood On His Toes

I’m on top of the wall, ma…

t takes a huge amount of cool, talent and poise to make the humble Croc look good, but then, Elwood Sweeney does know all the right moves for just such a challenge.

Which may explain why the Irish National Youth Ballet have included the Greystones 14-year-old in their spring production.

Hitting The Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College Dublin from May 17th to 19th, Coppélia will act as a showcase for some of the country’s finest young ballet dancers.

And Elwood is now officially one of them.

“To say landing this part is a dream come true is both a cliche and an understatement,” the Sweeney lad tells the Guide. “I’ve always loved dancing – I started when I was five – but it was only three years ago that I began to take it seriously, studying under Duane Watters at the Dancers Workshop Academy in Bray.

“Duane has brought out something in me that I love. He has inspired me, my confidence as a dancer has grown, and I’m currently dancing up to 15 hours a week…”

Moving to every kind of groove – jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, ballet, something call acro (a mix of traditional dance and acrobatic movement, apparently) – the young Sweeney lad’s itchy feet brought him to classes at The Irish National Youth Ballet in 2021, auditioning for the main company two years later.

“And I was successful in my audition!” he says. “I’ve been a member of the INYB company for one year now, dancing under the amazing Stephen Brennan, and I absolutely love it. And now, to be part of the spring production of Coppélia means that I’m leaping that little bit higher than ever before…”

Elwood will be joining two other young Wicklow dancers, Mika Kelly from Rathdrum (training with the Wicklow School of Dance) and Nina Braswell from Wicklow town (who trains in The College Of Dance). The trio will join a cast of 40 performers, chosen from a pool of 145 dancers who auditioned across the country.

“Our artistic director Lyndsay Ashe Browne, and teachers Killian O’Callaghan, Jane Magan and Stephen Brennan, have put so much work into this show,” says Elwood, “and that has helped us create something truly special. We all can’t wait to step out onto that stage and reveal what we’ve been rehearsing…”

Playing at The Samuel Becket Theatre from Friday, May 17th to Sunday 19th, you can grab your ticket for the Irish National Youth Ballet production of Coppélia right here. More on the Dancers Workshop Academy here and the INYB right here.