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Riverdance
''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Jean Butler, Michael Flatley and the vocal ensemble Anúna. Shortly afterwards, husband and wife production team John McColgan and Moya Doherty expanded it into a stage show, which opened in Dublin on 9 February 1995. Since then, the show has visited over 450 venues worldwide and been seen by over 25 million people, making it one of the most successful dance productions in the world. Background ''Riverdance'' is rooted in a three-part suite of baroque-influenced traditional music called ''Timedance''. ''Timedance'' was composed, recorded and performed for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by Ireland. At the time, Bill Whelan and Dónal Lunny composed the music, augmenting the Irish folk band Planxty with a rock rhythm section ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riverdance (song)
"Riverdance" is a song by Irish musician Bill Whelan, originally recorded in March 1993 and first performed as the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. "Riverdance" is a mostly instrumental composition performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, with an introduction sung by choral ensemble Anúna. The act received such a positive response that Son Records and Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) decided to release "Riverdance" as a single. In Ireland, the song spent a record-breaking 18 weeks at number one on the Irish Singles Chart and is the country's second-best-selling single of all time. "Riverdance" also became a top-10 hit in the United Kingdom, where it reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The song's success inspired Whelan to use "Riverdance" as a springboard to conceive an album of similar material and the theatrical show of the same name, which would open in February 1995. Background and Eurovision performance "Riverdance" was composed by Bill Whelan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joanne Doyle
Joanne Doyle (born 1973) is a former professional Irish dancer who is most famous for her lead role in ''Riverdance''. In her 10 years with ''Riverdance'', Doyle became the longest-serving lead in the show's history and danced in over 2,500 performances. Early life Born and raised in Lucan, Dublin, Doyle started dancing at the age of three and won several bronze, silver and gold medals at Irish and World Championships. After graduating from Mount Sackville Secondary School in nearby Chapelizod, Doyle began a Masters in European Social Policy where she was required to study at a different university for each semester. In early 1994, she moved to Ljubljana to study in Slovenia. It was at this time that ''Riverdance'' performed their seven-minute interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest. Being aware of the performance, she convinced a local pub to put it on the television. Her good friend, Breandán de Gallaí, was one of the troupe members that night and it was only because of he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Whelan
Bill Whelan (born 22 May 1950 in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, ''Riverdance'', was a seven-minute display of traditional Irish dancing that became a full-length stage production and spawned a worldwide craze for Irish dancing and Celtic music and also won him a Grammy. "Riverdance" was released as a single in 1994, credited to "Bill Whelan and Anúna featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra". It reached number one in Ireland for 18 weeks and number nine in the UK. The album of the same title reached number 31 in the album charts in 1995. Whelan has also composed a symphonic suite version of ''Riverdance'', with its premiere performed by the Ulster Orchestra on BBC Radio 3 in August 2014. Biography Whelan is a native of Limerick, and was educated at Crescent College. He gained his Bachelor of Civil Law degree at University College Dublin in 1973 and then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Flatley
Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an Irish-American dancer. He became known for Irish dance shows ''Riverdance'', '' Lord of the Dance'', ''Feet of Flames'', and ''Celtic Tiger Live''. Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries and have grossed more than $1 billion. Flatley is credited with reinventing traditional Irish dance by incorporating new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movements, which were previously absent from the dance, as well as including influences from tap and contemporary dance. He formerly held the Guinness World Records for tap dancing 35 times per second and his feet were at one time insured for $57.6 million. Flatley (5' 6") retired in 2016 due to constant spinal, knee, foot, and rib pain. Early life Michael Ryan Flatley was born on July 16, 1958, the second of five children born to Irish parents Michael James Flatley and Elisabeth "Eilish" Flatley (''née'' Ryan), both of whom had emigrated to the United Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Butler
Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971) is an American stepdancer, a master of Irish Dance, choreographer, and actress. She is best known for originating the principal female role in the Irish dance theatrical production ''Riverdance''. In January 2020 it was announced she is a member of the Irish America Hall of Fame, an honor presented by Irish America magazine. Early life Jean Butler was born in Mineola, New York. Her mother, Josephine, is from County Mayo in Ireland. She has a sister, Cara Butler, Cara. She started ballet and tap classes at the age of four. She eventually quit both. She began Irish dance lessons at the age of six, which she quit promptly. "I hated it," she says. "They made me stand with my arms at my sides for two hours. So, I left. I was too young." She tried Irish dance again at age nine, this time with a different dance teacher, Donald Golden, whom she considers to be one of the most influential people in her life. About a year into Irish dance, she became very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breandán De Gallaí
Breandán de Gallaí, a.k.a. Brendan de Gallaí or Brendan Galway (born 10 June 1969), is a professional Irish dancer who is most famous for his lead role in ''Riverdance'' and as a TV personality on TG4. He is currently a dance director for ''Riverdance'' and an artistic director for the Ériu Dance Company. Dancing career Early years de Gallaí was born into a family of seven by his father Gerry of Belfast and his mother Nellie of Donegal. In 1987, he moved to the United States and joined Gus Giordano’s dance academy in Chicago where he studied ballet, jazz, modern dance and tap dancing. In 1988, he moved back to Ireland and enrolled at Dublin City University and studied Applied Physics for four years. He was also an occasional substitute primary school teacher in physical education, Irish and mathematics. Riverdance In early 1994, de Gallaí received a call to audition for ''Riverdance's'' Eurovision Song Contest interval act. It was here that he met Michael Flatley, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Dunne
Colin Dunne (born 8 May 1968) is an English-Irish dancer and choreographer who is a leading figure in the world of traditional Irish dance, as well as a theatre actor and contemporary dancer. Best known internationally for his performances and choreography in ''Riverdance'' and ''Dancing on Dangerous Ground'', he transitioned to contemporary dance after earning an MA in that style as an artist-in-residence at the University of Limerick in 2002. In 2007, he was nominated for a UK Critics Circle National Dance Award (best male: modern dance) for performances at The Barbican in Fabulous Beast's production of ''The Bull''. His first solo show, ''Out of Time'', premiered in 2008. Early life Dunne was born in Birmingham, England, to Irish parents. He followed his two older sisters to Irish dance class at the local school, Birmingham's Comerford School, when he was just three years old. At the age of nine, he won his first World Championship title and was the first dancer to win the Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anúna
Anúna (stylized in all caps) is a vocal ensemble formed in Ireland in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne. Taking the current name in 1991,Allmusic Biography/ref> the group has recorded 18 albums and achieved a high level of international success, including a significant role in Riverdance from 1994 to 1996. Almost all of their repertoire is composed or arranged by McGlynn. Having had a public base, and trained many singers, in Ireland, the group announced in December 2022 that they would cease public performance in Ireland, while continuing in Northern Ireland and beyond. Musical style The original name of the group, An Uaithne, "is the collective description for the three ancient forms of Irish music ..the Goltraí (song of lament), Geantraí (song of joy) and Suantraí (the lullaby)". McGlynn reconstructed and arranged a substantial amount of early and medieval Irish music, as well as writing original pieces. Anúna do not work with a cond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Irvine (musician)
Andrew Kennedy Irvine (born 14 June 1942) is an Irish folk musician, singer-songwriter, and a founding member of Sweeney's Men, Planxty, Patrick Street, Mozaik, LAPD and Usher's Island. He also featured in duos, with Dónal Lunny, Paul Brady, Mick Hanly, Dick Gaughan, Rens van der Zalm, and Luke Plumb. Irvine plays the mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, harmonica, and hurdy-gurdy. He has been influential in folk music for over six decades, during which he recorded a large repertoire of songs and tunes he assembled from books, old recordings and rooted in the Irish, English, Scottish, Eastern European, Australian and American old-time and folk traditions. As a child actor, Irvine honed his performing talent from an early age and learned the classical guitar. He switched to folk music after discovering Woody Guthrie, also adopting the latter's other instruments: harmonica and mandolin. While extending Guthrie's guitar picking technique to the mandolin,''Andy Irvine – Celt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moya Doherty
Moya Doherty (born 1957, in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland) is a Dublin-raised Irish entrepreneur and the producer and co-founder of ''Riverdance''. Early life Doherty was born in Pettigo, County Donegal, and raised in Dublin. She attended Manor House School, Raheny. Riverdance Riverdance is a worldwide acclaimed theatrical phenomenon, which premiered in Dublin's Point Theatre in February 1995. Riverdance had started as a seven-minute interlude at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, commissioned by Moya Doherty, who was the show's Executive Producer. Business interests Doherty is chair of the board of Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ. She was previously a director of television production company Tyrone Productions. She was a founding director of the independent national commercial radio station Radio Ireland (which later rebranded as Today FM). She is a member of the board of the Dublin Theatre Festival. She was formerly a member of the board of the Abbey Thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits
''Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits'' (also known as ''Eurovision's Greatest Hits'') was a live television concert programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. The concert took place on 31 March 2015 at the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London. Guy Freeman was the executive producer and Geoff Posner the director, both of whom held the same positions as the last time the BBC hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in . Simon Proctor was the senior producer and David Arch was the musical director for the concert. Tickets for the event went on sale at 10:15 (GMT) on 6 February 2015. Graham Norton and Petra Mede hosted the event, which saw fifteen acts from thirteen countries performing their Eurovision entries from yesteryear. During the televised show, video montages from the Eurovision archives were shown in-between each live performanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Point Theatre
The Point Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Dublin, Ireland, that operated from 1988 to 2007, visited by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, amongst the Dublin Docklands. The Point was closed in the middle of 2007 for a major redevelopment and underwent a rebranding as The O2 in July 2008. Prior to the redevelopment, the seated capacity was 6,300; the rebranded O2 has a fully seated only capacity of 9,000. Following the acquisition of O2 Ireland by 3 Ireland, it was renamed in September 2014 as the 3Arena. The Point was noted for its flexible seating configurations – over the years it served not only as a music venue, but had also been turned into an ice rink, a boxing arena, a conference hall, an exhibition centre, a wrestling ring, a theatre, an opera house and a three ring circus. It hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, 1995 and 1997 and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
