Alan Foley, Artistic Director, Cork City Ballet

My introduction to dancing was following my sister to a class. She fled and I stayed.

I did get slagged about my dancing at school, of course, but it didn’t matter a damn to me. I’m the youngest of eight kids, so I’d learnt how to stand up for myself very early on.

My first, vivid memory of dancing is winning a disco-dancing competition when I was eight. I won another one at 12. Then, at the tender age of 13, I wrote to The Royal Ballet School in London, asking if they did any courses in disco. Their letter back was dripping with disdain.