Riverdance!

This week I went with my Grandmother to see Riverdance. For those of you who don't know this is the final time Riverdance will be touring. I've always been a fan of this, me and my Grandma would watch it together on a vhs that she had when I was little. So it was pretty special to me that I finally got to see it live, although it was sad that it won't be touring anymore, it was absolutely stunning.
The Riverdance show consists of dancing, singing, and playing instruments.

This is what the show consists of

ACT ONE

Reel Around the Sun - The Irish Dance Troupe

The Heart's Cry - The Riverdance Singers

The Countess Cathleen - The Female Irish Dance Troupe and The Male Moscow Folk Dancers

Caoineadh Chu Chulainn (Lament) - The Riverdance Irish Piper

Thunderstorm - The Male Irish Dance Troupe

Shivna - The Riverdance Flamenco Soloist and The Male Irish Dance Troupe

Slip into Spring : The Harvest - The Riverdance Band

Riverdance - The Irish Dance Troup with The Riverdance Singers and Drummers

ACT TWO

American Wake - The Company

The Harbour of the New World
Heal Their Hearts: Freedom - The Riverdance Baritone Soloist

Trading Taps - The Riverdance Tappers

Macedonian Morning - The Riverdance Band

The Russian Dervish - The Moscow Folk Ballet

Oscail an Doras (Open the Door) - The Irish Dance Troupe and The Riverdance Singers

Andalucia - The Riverdance Flamenco Soloist

Heartland - The Irish dance Troupe

Finale - The Company

One of my favorite parts of the entire show had to be the Flamenco Soloist, Rocio Montoya. The encorporation of Flamenco into traditional irish dance was so interesting, because typical irish dancing is done with your arms at your sides. Yet she danced with her arms in fluid motion, while irish dancing. It was so beautifully done and the colors involved with her part of the show were so bright that I felt like I was in Spain watching a festival.
One aspect of the show that i hadn't anticipated was the importancy of the music. There was a fiddler, Pat Mangan. He was extraordinary. There were parts of the show in which he would move to center stage to perform a solo and he was so good. My only critique of his part would be the length of it. At some points i felt like "okay....come on..." but even at those points it was still amazing.
Vocals were also a huge part of the show. There was one vocalist that stood out to me most, The Baritone Soloist, Michael Samuels. Although he only sang one full song on his own, it was one of the most bone chilling parts of the show. His voice was insanely beautiful and I couldn't believe my ears. I still have the song stuck in my head today.
But, the largest part of the show was obviously the irish dancing! The dancing in the show passed any expectation i had or any memory from the movie i used to watch with my grandmother. The way the dancers move their feet is mind blowing. The pace of the hard dancing was so fast, I have no idea how they do it. Pretty much the show consists of two kinds of dance, "hard shoe" and "soft shoe". Hard shoe is where they make the traditional tapping noise on the ground with their feet. The power and precision of all the dancers was incredible. Soft shoe is when the dancers move with more eloguence and grace, allowing a more fluid movement of the legs and feet. Although to me soft shoe is prettier, hard shoe is much more entertaining and it was more shown in the performances.
There were six Lead Dancers who were involved with many of the solos throughout the night. Craig Ashurst, Liam Ayres, Melissa Convery, Caterina Coyne, Marty Dowds, and Alana Mallon. Each was spectacular in their own way. My favorite, by far, is Marty Dowds. His feet move faster than anything i have ever seen before. And his stamina allows him to keep up incredibly fast rhythyms for long periods of time.
At some points in the performace, a sort of dance-off would occur. This was one of my favorite parts because it really displayed the abilities of the dancers better than routine dancing. "Trading Taps" displayed one of the best dance battles of the entire nights, making it one of my highest ranked parts of the show.
Irish Dance is an amazing art form which has been and will be around for a long long time, despite Riverdance's final tour. The power, percision, and grace of it's dancers are mind blowing and for all who were lucky to have seen them, a great memory.

Thats all i got to say.