Dance Preview
"Riverdance" still going strong

By Mary Murfin Bayley
Special to The Seattle Times

JOAN MARCUS A 2003 scene from Riverdance, a production of Irish music, song and dance seen by millions around the world.

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It has been 10 years since the Irish dance show "Riverdance" became a sensation overnight, and it is still in full step.

The production that opens tonight at the Paramount is rolling in on a U.S. tour that started last month in Alaska. Meanwhile, another "Riverdance" company is touring Europe. The show and its spinoffs have changed Irish dancing from a competitive hobby into professional entertainment, filling Irish dance schools around the world and providing young dance champions with a life in the theater. Some 16 million people have seen the signature rows of Irish dancers fast-stepping to composer Bill Whelan's score and playfully competing on stage with flamenco and tap dancers. Can there be anyone left out there who has not been exposed to "Riverdance" either in person or in the many television reruns? Still the audience keeps on coming.

Perhaps the people most surprised by the continued success of "Riverdance" are the original creators and producers. "When we started all of this, what we planned was a month in Dublin, shoot a video, and sort of pack our bags and go home," said Julian Erskine, the show's executive producer, in a phone call from Dublin. "It was a bit as though we had created something organic that just came to life and away it went."

Dance preview "Riverdance," tonight-Oct. 17 (no shows Monday or Wednesday), the Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle; $29-$65 (206-292-ARTS or www.theparamount.com).

"Riverdance" originated as a seven-minute intermission filler, starring dancers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, for the Eurovision Song Contest in April 1994. The audience responded fervently. Producer Moya Doherty got together with composer Whelan and director John McColgan to develop a full-length stage show. Erskine came aboard that summer as producer, and in February 1995 the expanded two-hour show hit the boards for the first time.

"Initially we were just chasing after it," Erskine recalls. "When it went on in Dublin, people came over from England and said 'you have to come to London straight away because this is just fantastic.' So suddenly we were in London, and when we were there people arrived from America and said 'you have to bring this to New York.' Again, we just said yes, and there we were, suddenly, in Radio City Music Hall," Erskine recalls.

The show has changed very little in 10 years. Perhaps the biggest change is that the star roles have not been as emphasized after a much publicized rift with Flatley. In October 1995, he left "Riverdance" and went on to create his own successful show, "Lord of the Dance."

"A lot of the press said at the time that it actually showed that 'Riverdance' was bigger than any of the performers singly, that it was more the cumulative effect of the whole show. Although all of the ingredients are still there, it gradually has become much more an ensemble piece," Erskine said.

Other things have evolved, like the costumes, but the seven-minute Eurovision piece that first kicked off "Riverdance" has not been changed. "It's like our signature tune, you know," Erskine said. "It's what we come from. It's the driving piece of the whole show, and it's exactly the same then as it is now."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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