{"id":666291,"date":"2026-10-27T00:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666291\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:02:19","slug":"ballet-star-has-cork-in-her-heart-thanks-to-her-shandon-gran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666291\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballet star has Cork in her heart, thanks to her Shandon gran"},"content":{"rendered":"

For London ballet dancer, Jeanette Jones, Cork has a special place in her heart thanks to her family\u2019s Shandon roots.<\/p>\n

Jeanette, 24, will be performing in The Nutcracker at the Cork Opera House in a Cork City Ballet production.<\/p>\n

She has come full circle, graduating in classical ballet at the London Studio Centre and returning to Cork city where her grandmother, Irene Ellard, was born upstairs in The Old Reliable pub in Shandon.<\/p>\n

The property remained in her family until the late 1980s when it was sold. It\u2019s still standing, just around the corner from the Firkin Crane, and within the sound of Shandon\u2019s famous bells.<\/p>\n

Irene, who left Cork at 18 to train as a nurse in London, is now aged 87 and still lives there, in reasonably good health.<\/p>\n

\"JeanetteJeanette Jones, who is starring in The Nutcracker at Cork Opera House next week. She says of Cork: \u201cThe people are so friendly there, much friendlier than London\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nan had an interesting life,\u201d says Jeanette. \u201cWhile working as a nurse, she met my grandad who was from China. He had been sent to Ireland to finish his medical training.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey met each other in a hospital in Dublin, fell in love, and moved to Hong Kong in the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple had three children, including Jeanette\u2019s mother. Jeanette\u2019s grandfather, Eugene So, 97, is no longer with Irene and lives in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nan was the third child out of four,\u201d says Jeanette. \u201cMy nan\u2019s mum ran the pub when her husband died. (Irene was just seven at the time.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my nan\u2019s mum died, it went to the oldest son, Cyril. When he died, his wife sold it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IreneIrene Ellard (second from left) and her sister Anne, and their daughters Lisa (Jeanette\u2019s mother) and Michelle<\/p>\n

This is the third time that Jeanette has performed in a Cork City Ballet production since graduating in 2024.<\/p>\n

The company puts on one big show a year, employing freelance dancers from around the world.<\/p>\n

Jeanette was \u201clucky to get a soloist role in Sleeping Beauty in 2024,\u201d she says, \u201cthe fairy of the enchanted garden. I had a lovely yellow tutu and I also had a little role in the prologue. That was a lovely surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Swan Lake the following year in Cork, in some corps de ballet roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanette, who was born and raised in London, has fond memories of holidaying in Cork and West Cork as a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came over on holidays four times, the first time when I was eight. We went to Skibbereen a few times. We have some relatives in Cork.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw all the sights in Cork city and we always made a visit to The Old Reliable. It\u2019s not what you\u2019d call a trendy young person\u2019s pub. When my nan goes there, she says that nothing has really changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irene, says her granddaughter, is \u201cnot a very nostalgic kind of person, adding: \u201cShe\u2019s very practical and just gets on with things. She is funny and has a great sense of humour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a problem, she doesn\u2019t moan or whinge. She just deals with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does Irene think of Jeanette\u2019s choice of career?<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think it was unexpected. But she always saw that ballet makes me very happy and so she\u2019s happy for me. I have one brother and he works in computers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

As for Jeanette\u2019s mother, \u201cshe realised that ballet was all I thought about. She did take me around to see some universities but she could tell I wasn\u2019t really enthusiastic about them. I think she was happy when I went to ballet school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanette, whose father co-owns a boat hire company in Henley in Oxfordshire, started ballet when she was just three years of age. \u201cI didn\u2019t really take it seriously until I was about 14,\u201d she says \u201cThen I started to really enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got into my ballet career quite late for a ballet dancer. It was a bit of a last minute decision. I asked my mother if I could audition for ballet schools. She said \u2018yes\u2019, not thinking I\u2019d get in anywhere. When I did get in, she couldn\u2019t say \u2018no\u2019 to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JeanetteJeanette Jones and her nan Irene Ellard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeanette spent her first year training in Glasgow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and then transferred to London for her second and third years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed my three years of training,\u201d she says. \u201cSince then, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to have done lots of short term contracts and tours with different companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved to Glasgow, it was right in the middle of covid so socialising was difficult. But doing ballet was a nice way to cope with the pressures of covid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballet is a very disciplined art form, but that doesn\u2019t bother Jeanette. \u201cI think I have the kind of personality where I thrive being quite strict in a disciplined environment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

How does she remain fit?<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is different. Personally, I find that ballet practice is enough to keep me strong and fit.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ellard children in 1944, Cyril, Rita, Eileen and Anne.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal struggle during my entire ballet life is the fact that I\u2019m not a very naturally flexible person. I always have to keep on top of stretching every day at home. For some people, it comes very naturally to them. They\u2019re born able to do the splits. That\u2019s not the case with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanette loves Cork, and is looking forward to her visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a great city, big enough that there\u2019s plenty to do with lots of lovely restaurants and bars,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are so friendly there, much friendlier than London.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the city is surrounded by such great countryside, and you can go to places like Kinsale and Skibbereen.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the features of Shandon that Jeanette loves is the Dragon of Shandon at Halloween, leading the annual community-led Samhain parade.<\/p>\n

She feels at home in the area and says that more caf\u00e9s to hang out in would enhance this quintessential part of Cork.<\/p>\n

The Nutcracker, directed by Alan Foley with choreography by Yury Demakov, is at the Cork Opera House from November 5-7, with shows at 8pm – please note that the 2.30pm matinee on the Saturday is sold out. Tickets: \u20ac36, \u20ac42, \u20ac48. See https:\/\/www.corkoperahouse.ie\/<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For London ballet dancer, Jeanette Jones, Cork has a special place in her heart thanks to her family\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-666291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}