It’s almost 40 years since Regina Rogers established her ballet school in Galway, with many adventures along the way, including several trips to Russia in the early 1990s as she sought to bring the best dancers here in a bid to share her passion. She shares her story with JUDY MURPHY.

On a wet winter’s evening about 40 years ago as Regina Rogers and a group of friends were sitting around the fire chatting, one of them suggested that Regina should establish a ballet school in Galway.

At the time, there was almost no culture of this dance form locally, but she was ideally placed to change that, having trained in ballet since childhood.

Regina’s mother, Marie Langan, who studied ballet in London and Paris, ran a school in Galway City in the 1950s and early 1960s, so it’s little surprise when Regina says, “I’ve danced all my life”.

She was born in Galway and her family lived on Threadneedle Road until she was 10 when they moved to Mayo, home county of her father John Langan, a GP.

She attended boarding school and followed that with a BA in History, Archaeology and English in UCG, as well as a H Dip in education. Her early training in ballet with her mother was followed by a period working with the Bertha Carr School of Dance, Rhode Island, USA, and she also took masterclasses at Boston Ballet.

In 1986, Regina set up the Regina Rogers School of Ballet, now the Galway Ballet Academy, which is located at Áras Bóthar na Trá in Salthill and has trained hundreds of children – mostly girls – between the ages of four and 19 years since then.

The lack of a ballet culture locally meant Regina had to create one, something that required vision, as well as absolute determination and patience.

“Early on, the children were leaving [the school] at the age of 11 or 12 because it wasn’t ‘cool’ to do ballet after that,” she says. “Also, there was an illusion of it being elitist, something English and toffee-nosed.”

Ballet certainly wasn’t English, as it had originated in Italy, becoming popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, she explains.

Regina felt that exposing Irish youngsters to professional performances would show them that ballet was ‘cool’ and something people could make a living from.

She decided she would bring a professional company to Galway. That was no easy task, however, and ultimately involved travelling to the farthest outreaches of Russia, to the Perm State Ballet.

Those were the days of Glasnost and Perestroika in the former USSR, when it seemed Russia was moving away from communism and dictatorship, but it was still not a country much visited by Irish people.

Regina knew nobody in Russia, but had heard of a young Irish ballet dancer who worked with the Tchaikovsky Perm State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. This was Dubliner Monica Loughman, the first westerner to dance with the Perm, who achieved considerable success there.

Regina phoned Monica’s parents in Dublin and eventually made contact with Monica, who was happy to help.

Regina mentioned her ambitious plan to the manager of Galway’s Town Hall Theatre, the late Michael Diskin, who thought it was a great idea. He would accompany her.

Michael, Regina and costume designer Monica Ennis flew to Moscow and then took an internal flight to Perm, over 1,000km away.

The trio did attract attention, Regina recalls with a laugh.

“Mike was convinced they thought we were spies but once they realised I was ballet-mad and wanted to bring ballet to Ireland, they knew we weren’t.

“It was a different time,” says Regina of the pre-Putin era, when there was a thaw in relations between Russia and West.

And she succeeded in her mission, with the company agreeing to come to Galway.  The Perm is the third best ballet company in Russia after the Bolshoi and Kirov, so she was doing well.

Pictured: Regina Rogers with some of her senior students in March 2007.