Riverdance – A Cultural Tsunami

Interview with Moya Doherty

Moya Doherty sits on the top branch of the broadcasting tree in Ireland. Her creative vision brought Riverdance to our screens for the first time in 1994 and now she serves as Chairwoman of the national broadcaster - Radio Telifís Éireann (RTE).

How has your Irish heritage influenced you throughout your working life?

While the majority of my influences would be grounded in the culture of Ireland, I am also a product of other cultural influences. For example, world music or literature from other countries affects me. I also like to think that culture means our everyday lived experience.

How valuable is poetry in your day-to-day life? Which poets do you enjoy?

Poetry is probably the cultural form which I use most to make sense of the world. I can remember, as a child, growing up in County Donegal, having this wish that someone would one day write a poem just for me. Poetry has the capacity to make the ordinary strange and forces me to consider things in a way I might not otherwise do.

Poets I enjoy: Bolan, McGuckian, Meehan, Cannon, Heaney, Montague, Mahon, Muldoon, Longley. But I also enjoy the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Sara Teasdale or Jane Kenyon.

Riverdance – at the idea stage – did you ever realise how far-reaching and successful it would become? What do you think is its most important success?

I would love to be able to say that I knew exactly what I was doing and that there was some kind of grand plan for Riverdance, which was rolled out in a measured and managed way. I would, of course, be lying. Riverdance was a cultural tsunami which took us all by surprise and most of the time we were riding that tsunami like surfers clinging to a runaway surfboard. However, with the value of hindsight, I think what I was doing - even if subconsciously - was bringing together the influences we all carried into a form which resonated with the cultural moment that was the so-called Celtic Tiger.

There was a moment early in Riverdance history when I did realise that I was witnessing the emergence of a unique cultural production and experience and

I have never since then lost the sense of privilege for having been at the heart of it. There are many things about Riverdance which have importance but, for me, the most important is helping to define, on a global scale, what a modern Ireland is culturally by bringing together a past and future Ireland in a performance rooted in the present.

How did you feel after being awarded the RDS gold medal for enterprise in 2017? What does this mean to you on a personal level?

Receiving major awards is always a somewhat humbling experience. You look at those who have been given them before you and compare yourself to them, usually unfavourably. So, to be honoured by the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin was a great accolade, particularly as I was the first woman to be given such an accolade.

For me, this is the most important aspect of such awards; the hope that it is an indication that women are no longer invisible in these important public arenas. So often receiving awards is representative of something more important than you being given individual recognition and it is important to be aware of this.

As Chairwoman of RTE, what responsibilities do you think you have towards maintaining the Irishness of this great country and also promoting us internationally?

If ‘Irishness’ means, all that is involved in being a citizen in Ireland at this time, then RTÉ, indeed any public service broadcaster, has a massive responsibility to represent what it is that makes Ireland ‘Irish’. Often - and this can lead to major criticism - this means representing what is bad about the country as well as what is good but RTÉ has a responsibility to establish an agenda (politics, culture, news, sport) for discussion; not to dictate that agenda, or direct public thinking, but to open these issues for debate at a national level.

Advice to anyone trying to make their dreams come true in the Irish environment?

My advice is not to have dreams, but to have goals. Dreams suggest fantasy, a nebulous connection with reality. Goals can be planned, designed and worked on. But do not have rigid goals and be prepared to shift and negotiate with yourself as to the best way forward.

Do not be afraid to act on intuition, since often the first feeling about an issue or opportunity is the most telling. Do not be coerced into a career you do not want. This takes courage but is better than a miserable daily existence, which pays a ‘good’ salary.

Be self-motivated and do not wait for others to offer opportunities. Ireland offers much for creative thinkers and practitioners, but the work will not come to you. Find it.

Remember that at some point you will not be rejected. And rejection is not the same as failure. Beckett said to “fail well”. For me, this means not ever getting comfortable with failure. Most importantly, be your own harshest critic - while occasionally being kind enough to yourself to buy the odd glass of bubbles, for success or failure.

How has the image of old Ireland been changed to keep pace with a more dynamic multicultural Ireland?

The Abortion Referendum was, for me, the greatest example to-date of the old Ireland keeping pace with the new Ireland.

What a glorious day to see that the voting figures showed a country at peace with itself and, more importantly, at one with the women in that country. What this illustrated for me was the importance of always filtering history and ‘traditional’ values through the prism of contemporary thinking and ideas.

More than two decades on, Riverdance is still touring theatres worldwide. Some fun facts:

• There have been more than 11,000 performances of Riverdance.

• It has been seen by over 25 million people, in over 465 venues worldwide.

• It has played in 46 countries across six continents.

• The show has travelled 700,000 miles (or to the moon and back and back again!)

• It has played to a global television audience of three billion people.

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