'Incredibly blessed': The 86-year-old dancer on the secret to a long career

Dancer Joanna Banks first stepped on stage in Northern Ireland in 1958 as a teenager with the Royal Ballet, now 86 years old she is back on the boards. "I've had quite a long career, which is unusual for a dancer," she said, adding that she is "incredibly blessed" to still be performing. For Northern Irish dancer Clara Kerr, who is performing alongside her, the octogenarian is "so inspiring". The two are in the cast of Luail dance company's Trojans, by acclaimed Irish choreographer Philip Connaughton. The contemporary dance show is performed at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn on Wednesday and Thursday. Banks told BBC News NI that she could still vividly remember her first visit to Belfast to perform. "The first time I visited Belfast was, unbelievably, in 1958 with the touring company of the Royal Ballet for two weeks in the Grand Opera House. "I was the baby of the Royal Ballet, I was 18 at the time, I'd just celebrated my eighteenth birthday." Having danced with the Royal Ballet and then in Germany, she later moved to Cork in the 1970s to dance with the Irish National Ballet Company and never left Ireland. Kerr, from Holywood is, by contrast, in her 20s and is performing alongs