Riverdance – The Anniversary Tour
★★★★★ (out of 5)
“A dhaoine uaisle, tá fáilte romhaibh chuig Riverdance,” was the announcement at the start of this 20th anniversary tour and hearing Irish booming out from the loudspeakers in Liverpool’s Empire Theatre sent a shiver down my spine, which seemed to remain for the entire two hours of the show as the dancers and musicians thrilled the sell-out audience.
Ireland, and indeed Britain, has changed massively since Riverdance first appeared as an interval performance in the Eurovision song contest in Dublin in 1994 – we’ve even had the Queen of England speaking Irish to an audience in the capital – but this show seems as relevant and exciting as ever.
The motionless dancers standing in the semi-darkness of designer Robert Ballagh’s set at curtain-up reminded me of Anthony Gormley’s iron statues which stand on the coast a few miles north of the theatre, but it wasn’t long till they sprang into life and took us through the nine scenes of Act One with all the trademark energy which has delighted audiences around the world.
Although the 20 dancers in the troupe are mainly Irish-born, some are graduates of the many Irish dancing schools here in Britain, including principal dancers Ciara Sexton of the Marion Turley School (West Midlands), Alana Mallon (Scotland), Stephen Brennan (England) and Bobby Hughes (Bristol).
Ireland has become a lot more multicultural over the last 20 years and so Act Two, which focusses on Irish emigration and the bonds that can be formed between different cultures through song and dance, seems all the more powerful and relevant.
I suspect that many in the audience had no Irish connections at all, and yet they sat enthralled through Matt Bashford’s uilleann pipe solo and Guy Ricarby’s energetic bodhrán display, instruments rarely heard outside the Irish community 20 years ago. And this is the ultimate strength Riverdance: showcasing the best of Irish traditional song and dance to the world.
Riverdance – The Anniversary Tour in tour in Britain until December 13, 2014. Check riverdance.com for details
