Over twenty-five years ago, Riverdance: The Show brought Irish dance to international attention. The inspiration for the show was a performance in the seven-minute interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest held in Dublin, Ireland. Featuring dancing champions Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, and the vocal ensemble Anúna, it introduced a new form of Irish dance to the world that was less rigid than traditional forms, incorporating new rhythms and upper body movements. About three hundred million people watched the live performance, now considered to be the most famous interval act in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Reinvention
Irish husband and wife production team Moya Doherty and John McColgan decided to expand the concept of Riverdance into a full-length show. The show went on to become an immediate and enormous success. Since it debuted in 1995, it has been performed at more than 450 venues all over the world, been seen by more than twenty-five million people and made more than $1 billion, making it one of the most successful dance productions of all time. As the company explains on its website:
"This is Riverdance completely reimagined! A powerful and stirring reinvention of the global phenomenon. Composer Bill Whelan has rerecorded his mesmerising soundtrack while producer Moya Doherty and director John McColgan have completely reimagined the ground-breaking show with innovative and spectacular lighting, projection and stage designs with new costume designs by Joan Bergin."
The most expensive feet in the world
The original Riverdance show, starring Flatley and Butler, debuted at The Point Theatre in Dublin on February 9th 1995. However, Flatley, an Irish-American dancer, choreographer and musician, got into a dispute with the producers later that year regarding payment, and he left Riverdance. Flatley went on to create three of his own dance shows, namely Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames and Celtic Tiger Live, which have been performed to more than sixty million people in sixty countries, and made more than $1 billion. He is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for tap dancing 35 times per second, and his feet were at one time insured for $57.6 million. Unfortunately, Flatley had to retire in 2016 because of the strain dance had put on his body.