At 8am every morning, Alex Young wakes up to cereal, fruit and yogurt, fueling his body with the energy it needs to watch the previous night's performance of Spirit of the Dance. These days, in addition to his routine of checking for problem areas, the tour manager of the Irish song and dance extravaganza now has another duty: reconfirming the general choreography of the show with regard to the Shanghai Grand Theater's stage dimensions for its return engagement in late April.

It's a return that Shanghai audiences welcome, since many did not get to see Shanghai's most recent Irish dance fest, Riverdance at last fall's Shanghai International Festival of the Arts, which sold out all five of its performances. Young and his troupe both preceded and followed that famous event.

Three years earlier, in 2000, with Spirit Young and his troupe first introduced the lively Irish dance to Shanghai. Back then, they were only able to fill theaters to an 80 percent capacity. "We are happy to come back at a time that Irish dancing show is in its heyday in Shanghai," says Young, obviously thrilled at the notion.

Spirit which debuted in England in 1996, is the story of a young Irish girl's dream, in which her spirit travels around the world and collects the most typical dancing forms from different countries. Accompanied by avant-garde lighting and stage designs, over 20 professional dancers demonstrated powerful foot-stomping alternating with the passionate Latino rhythms of tango, flamenco and red hot salsa as well as Scottish highland fling and jazz.

The traceable story line, in contrast to the panoramic plot of the Riverdance, is so thin as to be virtually transparent. "I can tell that there is a certain story going on but it's hard for me to figure out the details of the plot," recalls 23-year-old Peng Zhen, an IC design engineer who saw Riverdance last October. "Still it was an exciting and heart-pounding experience although the music was sometimes too loud and even drowned out footwork."

Whenever Spirit arrived in a new town, comparisons were inevitable with the original Riverdance, which came to world attention a year earlier. But when they set off for the next city, Spirit left behind them record-breaking ticket sales and enthusiastic viewers who could not ask for more. As of the end of 2003, the show was seen by more than 30 million people around the world.

David King, the show's producer, admits that if it was not for Riverdance, his creation simply wouldn't exist. But King quickly adds that he made the decision to create his own niche in the market very early on. "There was absolutely no point in producing a show similar to Riverdance, which would only have lasted for three months," King said. With that awareness, King took more than three months writing the musical scores and all the songs for the show, working round the clock and mortgaging everything from the car to the family silver. The result is an inspirational blending of Irish fiddle, classical jazz, rock and roll, Broadway and more.

The CD of the show sells like hotcakes in countries in which the show has appeared. The show's distinct identity is found in its flamingo, jitterbug and even step dancing to screaming electric guitar works well.

There are more group dancing performed by dancers from the Irish International Dance Company, some of whom started professional training as young as six years old and keep rehearsing every day. A British newspaper once described their stomping skills as something that "sounds like a runaway express train."

For local dance program agents, there is much to learn in terms of strategic promotions from their Irish counterparts. "In addition to touring the world, they also created series of video productions which has helped spread their popularity worldwide," says Sun Mingzhang, the general manager of Shanghai City Dance Co Ltd.

At the 2004 CCTV lunar New Year Eve variety show, Spirit became the first foreign art group to perform at the annual TV gala, which was seen by nearly 500 million Chinese worldwide. "The success of these Irish dancing shows best supports the idea that dancing programs can and should be promoted strategically for commercial success," Sun says.

"I shudder to think what might have happened if the show failed, but my belief and determination drove me forwards," King says. "Call it destiny or call it fate, I don't really know, it just had to be done."

Be it a mass production or an art work, the Irish smash hits can still bring a full house on its feet. If you are looking for a show packed with excitement, leaving you gasping for breath, this may be the one.

Time: 7:15 pm, April 23-25

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater, 300 People's Ave

Tickets: 120-580 yuan

Tel: 86-21-63728701, 86-21-62727910

(eastday.com April 2, 2004)