Niamh O’Connor is the last dancer standing.
After a dozen years of Riverdance, starting at The Point in Dublin in 1995, O’Connor—dance captain for the show’s Boyne touring company—still laces up the hard shoes night after bone-jarring night.
You can see Niamh’s fancy footwork this week as the company pounds the boards Tuesday through Sunday at the Academy of Music.
Niamh, who first started taking lessons in Dublin at the age of 4, now holds the record for the most performances of any dancer in the show. “I’ve done over 3,000 performances all over the world,” she says. “I’m well above everybody else at this stage.”
She recalls when dancers first were being recruited for the show. As a champion dancer—the racked up medals in the Leinster, All-Ireland, and World competitions—she was an obvious prospect. Of course, virtually no one could have foreseen that Riverdance would go on to become a monster hit worldwide, but for an Irish dancer, the appeal was undeniable.
“Initially we were booked for three weeks in the Point, then to London for three more weeks, then back to Dublin,” she says. “We didn’t think it would take off on such a worldwide level at all. But for any Irish dancer, to be given the opportunity to perform in a show like Riverdance, of course they’d never turn it down.”
No one had ever seen Irish dance performed in such a new and daring way. In some ways, she explains, it wasn’t much of a departure. Still, there were things to learn—things a competitive Irish dancer might not have known or appreciated.
“The steps we do are still traditional Irish steps,” she says. “The thing that was new was the performance element. Irish dancing hadn’t been professional until this time. We started using hand and head movements that would not have been in traditional Irish dancing. That would have been a whole new experience for all of us. We were used to dancing on stage in competition, though. So basically all we had to learn was performance in front of a paying audience, with different music and different costumes.”
Niamh must have figured out how to meet the new challenges. Twelve years on, she’s still on her toes. In fact, she has performed all over the world, with performances in Scandinavia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, China, and throughout Europe and North America. As dance captain, she is responsible for scheduling and running rehearsals and for breaking in new dancers.
Her responsibilities don’t end there. She’s on stage, too, for every performance. It’s nothing like easy, dancing well past the point where many would have the stamina to carry on. But, she explains, “I really do look after myself, taking a lot of rest when I should. We have a cardiovascular workout every night before the show. And after every show, I go into ice buckets up to my knees.”
So much for the glamour of the stage.
Now, as Riverdance once again sweeps into Philadelphia, Niamh remains very much engaged in the show. The show has evolved, of course—new costumes new numbers, new sets and lighting changes. But the show remains fundamentally the same exhausting and exhilarating experience it has always been. That killer finale remains, too—and, she says, it still draws a roaring standing ovation, show after show.
Not too hard to take, clearly. And Niamh is prepared to take it for a while longer still. She is studying advanced interior design with the Regency Academy of Fine Arts in the U.K. because she knows that, even for a marathoner like herself, Riverdance must someday end. But for now and for the foreseeable future, Riverdance is her life. “As long as I’m physically able to dance I will,” she says. “I love performing. It’s my job.”