The Irish dance spectacular Riverdance will kick off the month-long "Meet in Beijing" arts festival in the Chinese capital later this month.
The show's rhythmic and passionate dance steps will echo through the Capital Gymnasium from April 28 to May 4, even though many other overseas companies have cancelled their China tours because of fears of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Joanne Doyle and Breanda de Gallai the two principal dancers paid an advance visit to Beijing at the end of last month. They appeared on the TV program "Dance World" on China Central Television channel 3 and met their fans in the city.
After performing with a Chinese tap dancer on the TV show, Doyle said: "I will be very careful because I have felt the pressure. His steps were amazing."
Lively Performance
Riverdance started as a seven-minute interval performance at the Eurovision Song Contest in late April 1994, broadcast from Dublin to more than 300 million people in Europe.
The response to the short live performance was so overwhelmingly positive that plans were made to develop it into a full stage show.
Bill Whelan, who composed the original music for the Eurovision Song Contest spot, decided to fulfill a long-standing ambition and incorporate music and dance from other cultures "to reflect the Irish diaspora of the great emigrations of the 19th century."
In February 1995, Riverdance opened as a two-hour show at the Point Theatre in Dublin, produced by Moya Doherty and directed by John McColgan.
From then on, it spread like wildfire all over the world, delighting people with its wonderful music and spectacular steps.
Bai Zhiqun, director of the Dance World TV show, said: "Riverdance perfectly integrates traditional Irish music and contemporary tunes, choral writing, spectacular hard-shoe Irish dancing, Russian and flamenco steps in a way never dreamed of before."
Excited Audiences
Wherever Riverdance performed, you could hear the audience gasping for breath, even above the pounding feet and the swirling music. An explosion of shouts and whoops would follow as all that air burst out again in a wave of wonderment.
It was, of course, the sheer force and energy of the dancing, the rapture of the music and the fantastic sight of so many bodies in motion that caused such reactions.
But there was something else as well -- some long-submerged emotion breaking the surface and gulping in the oxygen.
Overnight sensations seldom last. In the merciless world of show business, today's novelty becomes old news in the blink of an eye.
No amount of hype or clever marketing can sustain a show beyond its immediate impact. Unless, that is, it is fuelled by some deeper source of energy. And it cannot just draw from that source -- it also has to renew it and give back at least as much as it has taken.
Riverdance has continued to find and excite audiences all around the world because it does both of these things. Even as it grows and changes, it stays in touch with the emotions that made the opening-night audience gasp. Even as Riverdance touches people in distant places, it continues to shape and refresh the culture from which it sprang.
What the audiences see and what makes them gasp was how the movement in Riverdance reflects the dynamic way in which Irish culture has actually evolved.
At its most basic level, Riverdance is an exciting display of music, dancing and singing.
On another level, it is the story of Ireland and its people. Like a river that is fed by many tributaries and then flows out into the ocean, the Irish people came from many different places and then, centuries later, "flowed" out of Ireland to other parts of the world.
On still another level, it is the story of humanity's creative exploration of nature through the arts.
In part one, the show deals with themes that are at the heart of a lot of early music and dance -- songs in praise of the Earth, the sun, fire, the moon and other elemental forces that are common to all cultures.
Part two tells how the native culture is forced to emigrate and, by so doing, becomes exposed to the forms of expression of other cultures, both in dance and music.
Wang Chen of the China Performing Arts Agency, who is the presenter of Riverdance in Beijing, said: "Riverdance has re-energized the traditional Irish dancing from which it springs.
"Bad commercial shows exploit the forms and feelings they make use of, finally sucking them dry. Riverdance, on the contrary, has watered the roots of Irish dancing," he added.
Yan Ling, head of the Beijing-based Yanling Dance School, expressed agreement. Yan, a pioneer of tap-dancing in China, said: "Riverdance has created previously unimaginable excitement, drawing in a new generation, releasing new energies, opening up new possibilities. And, in turn, these forces have fed back into the show itself."
Riverdancers
There are currently two Riverdance companies. The Liffey company tours Europe and Asia, while the Lagan company tours the United States and Canada.
It is the Liffey company that is coming to China. In Ireland, the River Liffey rises from a dark pool 10 meters wide between the Tonduff and Kippure mountains in County Wicklow, 16 kilometers from Dublin. It flows on a meandering journey of 130 kilometers before finally flowing through Dublin city and out into the Irish Sea.
Since 1994, many skilled dancers have had the privilege of being part of the show, but only a few of them have been there virtually since the beginning like Doyle and de Gallai the principal dancers of the Liffey company.
Not having been able to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, Doyle joined the show eight months later. Since then, she has danced in more than 1,500 shows all over the world.
De Gallai who graduated in physics from Dublin City University, was once a teacher in an all-girls school, teaching physical education, Irish Gaelic and mathematics.
As dancing is his biggest passion, de Gallai studied modern jazz, ballet and tap in addition to Irish dance at the Gus Giordano Dance Academy in the US city of Chicago.
In 1994, he took part in that seven-minute number for the Eurovision Song Contest. After the audition, he became the principal dancer of Riverdance when it began its first run of performances in Dublin that same year.
Throughout the shooting of the Chinese TV program, the energetic dancer gave viewers the feeling that they can do almost anything. He is friendly, generous and occasionally even shy.
"Initially, it was the fun. I didn't know that this could be a career," he said.
"Now I find I am able to do it much better than I used to because I'm more experienced."
But the veteran dancer never thought it would be easy to be a principal dancer of Riverdance. "You could be a professional dancer and dance three times a week but, in Riverdance, and dancing the principal role, it's way more difficult," he said.
(China Daily April 14, 2003)
