The pinnacle for every Irish dancer is to be in Riverdance
As the show celebrates its 25th anniversary, director John McColgan tells MARION McMULLEN how the Irish dance phenomenon has been re-jigged
Riverdance has played to more than 25 million people over the last 25 years. What celebrities have been to see the show? MADONNA, Meryl Streep, Fame and The Commitments film director Alan Parker, Dame Shirley Bassey, Prince Charles... so many.
We’ve even performed for Pope Francis. We’ve taken it to 40 countries around the world and I never get bored of seeing the show.
Every time I look at the audience they are just mesmerised and their excitement is contagious. People find it uplifting.
Riverdance began as the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. Did you realise it was special from the start?
MY wife Moya Doherty was producing the show, so I followed the process right through the rehearsals and I felt something exciting was happening.
On the night itself there was a 4,000-strong audience at The Point and they did not know what to expect from the interval act.
Usually the country hosting Eurovision did one of these performances celebrating the local culture and quite often it was boring, but at the climax of Riverdance all 4,000 people were on their feet applauding wildly.
Our president was there as well, and she was also on her feet. It’s a cliché, but the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and you knew that something special had just happened.
Did the stage show follow quite quickly? A YEAR later we had a show. It happened very quickly.
Five hundred million people saw Riverdance on Eurovision so it was a great start. We opened in Hammersmith in the UK and then Germany and Radio City Music Hall immediately after that.
Suddenly we had two companies performing because the demand was so great, then three. They asked for a fourth, but I said no because the talent pool was simply not big enough.
We had 100 people on the road doing shows for a number of years. It took over my life. For a number of years I was working 24/7 on the show.
What was it like in the early days?
YOU always get injuries in dance, but we had a lot in the early days, I mean, a lot.
No-one realised how big it would become and some of the young dancers thought it would be a bit of a craic to do it for a couple of years and they suffered injuries if they didn’t warm up properly and were stiff.
The dancers now come prepared for the long haul. They are athletes and very disciplined and you can see their energy and commitment and they sense of how happy they are to be in the show.
The pinnacle for every Irish dancer is to be in Riverdance.
We now have a summer school in Dublin and they come from all over the world to train with the dancers from the company.
What have been some of the landmark moments over
the last 25 years? (LAUGHS) We have had weddings, babies and all that. Associate director Padraic Moyles, who was the lead dancer in Riverdance, is my main man teaching the dancers now.
He helps establish that family culture that I think we have. The company certainly see themselves as a family and look after each other. Quite a lot of the cast were not even born when Riverdance started.
How international is Riverdance these days?
WE’VE being going to China for 15 years now and we’ve played the People’s Great Hall and all the major cities. We also did a big, big New Year’s Eve show on TV. China is very aware of Riverdance.
You can walk into a park and see 10 people practising the dance moves.
We even have Chinese Irish dancers who follow us and dance outside the theatre. They learn Irish dancing from watching the videos.
Riverdance has been given an anniversary makeover. What can audiences expect?
IT’S a different work and we are doing things that were not possible 25 years ago. (Chuckles) It’s Riverdance on Imax.
It’s huge, with high quality LED screens and fantastic images. It’s spectacular and dramatic, but at the same time we have made sure it does not distract from the dancing.
People who have watched it already have said ‘Oh, my God, I’ve never seen anything like it’. It’s the most dramatic change in the history of Riverdance.
We have new costumes, lighting and projections and composer Bill Whelan has re-recorded his Grammy Award-winning music.
Was there a risk in changing the production?
EVERY time you worry if you are doing it right. It’s different, but I am quietly confident we have got it right. In showbusiness, there is always a risk, nothing is guaranteed. You just have to take a big gasp, believe it and make it happen.
One of the things about Riverdance it that it gets a big repeat audience. There are people who have keep coming back year after year. I feel we owe it to them to provide something that will give them an overwhelming sense of pleasure.
So what does the future hold for Riverdance?
THERE is a good living to be made Irish dancing now and there is the opportunity to tour the world.
Our mantra remains after 25 years ‘every night is opening night.’
THE Riverdance 25th anniversary tour launches in the UK on March 10. Go to riverdance. com for booking details.