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Riverdance

Dance, People

A Dream Come True for Riverdance Lead Anna Mai Fitzpatrick

You might say Anna Mai Fitzpatrick’s role as a lead dancer in the U.S. touring company of Riverdance was preordained.

When Anna Mai was 3, her mother Sharon saw Riverdance on television in one of the show’s earlier incarnations and signed her up for Irish dance lessons in her local primary school.

Not everyone who begins Irish dance carries it much beyond adolescence, but for Fitzpatrick all those jigs and reels evolved into a passion that carries on today into her 20s.

Along the way, she won a third place in the under-19 category at the World Irish Dancing Championships—no mean feat—and came out on top in the Great Britain Championships and the British Nationals, among other honors.

January 8, 2020 by Jeff Meade

Audio, Audios

Podcast: Interview with Riverdance Fiddler Haley Richardson

New Jersey native Haley Richardson, a young fiddle player well-known within the Philadelphia traditional Irish music community, where her love of the genre first took root, joined the cast of Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin this summer.

Often described as a “child prodigy,” at 17 Haley is no longer a child, and regardless of the honors and accolades thrown her way, remains a thoroughly grounded young lady.

Anyone who has ever heard her play—from her childhood playing an appropriately child-sized violin to her victories at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (the world championships of Irish music) and appearances on stage with the likes of The Chieftains—knows those honors and accolades are well-deserved.

We recently spoke with Haley about Riverdance, her upbringing in music, and thoughts on her future. Here’s what she had to say.

August 29, 2019 by Jeff Meade

Dance

The Last Dance

Caterina Coyne

Can it really be so? Will the toe-tapping spectacle that is Riverdance never again play in a Philadelphia theatre?

True. And Philadelphia isn’t alone. When the lights go out at the Wolftrap Center outside Washington, D.C., the North American show’s last stop, on June 17, Riverdance will never again tour the United States.

For Caterina Coyne, the female lead dancer of the show’s Shannon company which will perform Friday through Sunday at the Merriam Theatre, curtain call on that final Wolftrap show is likely to be a bittersweet moment.

“I’ve been doing Riverdance for eight years, five of them in North America,” says the London-born Coyne, who moved with her family to Galway when she was a small child. “I suppose I spend so much time over here, I see North America as being as much my home as Ireland. It’ll be very sad not to be touring here anymore. United States audiences are probably the best anywhere. They love the show, and they are really vocal about it. You can see how much they enjoy it. Throughout the rest of the world, they are more reserved.”

This final North American tour began in Dallas in February. The troupe sets a grueling pace, performing eight shows a week, on average. (They get Mondays off.)

Coyne, 29, has been dancing since age 4, dancing competitively and racking up prizes as she went along. When Riverdance first made a big splash, back in February of 1995, she was still in high school. Coyne loved Irish dance as it was, but Riverdance was another thing entirely.

“I suppose you can say that before Riverdance, the pinnacle of Irish dancing was to be world champion, or top 10 in the world. But then Riverdance came about, and the show gave Irish dancers an opportunity to become professionals. It’s done a lot for Irish dancing.

“I loved dancing. It’s my first love, really. I remember watching it (the show), and seeing the line of dancers. I just wanted to be in that show, and thats all I wanted to do.”

After Coyne left school, she had an opportunity to audition for the show. It wasn’t long before she got the news: she was in. “I waited for a position to open for me, and then, I got the call. I was over the moon. I’ve been touring ever since.”

You can see Riverdance as it passed through Philly for the last time. For details, visit the box office website.

May 4, 2012 by Jeff Meade

Music

From Michael Coleman to Riverdance

Patrick Mangan

For years to come, two words inevitably will precede Patrick Mangan’s name: “Riverdance fiddler.”

Which is OK by him.

Although he is well-grounded in traditional Irish music—and you’ll hear plenty of it Saturday night when he plays a concert at the Philadelphia Irish Center with friend and singer-guitarist Ryan McGiver—Riverdance is a major part of his life, and has been for a decade.

Mangan, born in Brooklyn and trained in the ways of New York Sligo-style fiddling by the great Brian Conway, first came to the attention of the show’s producers in 2000, when he was just 15, By that point in his life, he had already won the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (the world competition of Irish music, also known as the All-Irelands) twice, in 1994 and 1997. He was young, but he’d already had experience on the world stage.

Riverdance was quite another thing altogether.

He remembers when he first considered trying out for the show. “I saw something in one of the New York Irish papers. It was just a little listing saying Riverdance was looking for substitute fiddlers for the show on Broadway,” he says. “So I recorded a little four-track demo and sent it in. They invited me to audition, and I remember playing in front of the show’s composer Bill Whelan and the piper Declan Masterson. (After that) I didn’t hear anything for almost a year. Then they invited me to audition again.”

It turned out that one not-so-little factor gave the show’s producers pause. “They had never had a male fiddler before. It broke the mold. Eileen Ivers had made it an iconic role for a female fiddler, and they were a little on the fence about that, but they decided to give it a shot.”

That was in 2001. He was 16.

That shot turned into a fill-in gig that Mangan wound up squeezing into his high school and, later, college schedule.

The relationship with Riverdance evolved into something deeper and longer-lasting not long after his graduation from Tufts with a degree in English, with a minor in music. The degree seemed like the right thing to do, and it played to his strengths, but after graduation Mangan still hadn’t settled on a career path.

And then Riverdance came calling again. “I had maintained the connection with them throughout high school and college. Then, just after graduation, a full-time spot opened up with the American touring company. I’ve been touring with them full-time since college. I’ve been all over the world. It’s lucky Riverdance came along when it did.”

(His long relationship with Riverdance also changed his life in another significant way. It’s where he met his future wife, fellow cast member and Russian dancer Natia Rtveliashvili. They were married in June of this year. At last count, there have been over 30 marriages among Riverdance cast members.)

Mangan came to Riverdance already well-schooled in the traditional style of fiddle play. In fact, because he was taught by Brian Conway, and Conway was mentored in part by Andy McGann—and McGann himself was schooled by Coleman—Mangan has been described as a “direct artistic descendant of early 20th-century Irish-American fiddler Michael Coleman.” It’s worth noting that Mangan himself, when he was very young, also played with McGann, and McGann’s contemporary Paddy Reynolds.

“Just to have that influence and those older musicians being so gracious and generous when I was growing up, i was very lucky to be growing up at that time,” Mangan says.

And because his parents were devotees of traditional music, there was never a time in Mangan’s young life that he was not exposed to the old tunes of Ireland. He recalls listening to the music from his stroller at the Irish festival in Snug Harbor on Staten Island.

His love of that form of music has never gone away. As much as Riverdance has helped him gain in popularity and name recognition—and it has done that—he’s eager to play the old style with his partner McGiver.

Still, Mangan began his fiddle schooling with classical music taught in the Suzuki method, and he maintained his familiarity with the classical throughout his childhood and high school.

Between his deep familiarity with both styles—traditional Irish and classical—Mangan says he felt well qualified to play the Riverdance style of Irish music, which is nothing like the way Michael Coleman played it. In addition, Mangan himself relishes many styles and types of music.

“Riverdance at its core is based in Irish music,” he says, “but it’s good to have a grounding in classical music. You can play in different styles if you have the technique. And I always enjoyed improvising. I’ve never had too much of a problem with that. When I first learned the (Riverdance) music, it was a fun challenge. By now, I’ve played it so many times, I could do it in my sleep.”

For Mangan, playing in the blockbuster Irish show that laid the groundwork for all the Celtic women and Irish tenors who would follow still holds his deep interest. In fact, he’s soon going to go out on the road with Riverdance again.

And that’s just fine with him, too.

“As many times as I’ve heard that music,” he says, “certain musical moments in the show still get to me. There’s a reason why that show has gone on as long as it has. It’s just amazing how much my life has been touched by it, how one thing has led to another.”

December 17, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Dance

Dancing on Air

Riverdance lead Marty Dowds

The great Riverdance finale—dancers strung across the stage, shoulder to shoulder in a single line, each one ramrod straight, heels hammering into hardwood, the whole line moving as one. If you have ever danced, it’s hard to attend a performance of the high-stepping spectacle and not imagine yourself in that line, filling the concert hall with that great noise.

For just under a dozen local dancers—some of them schooled in the Irish traditional form, a few of them students of tap—the fantasy came a bit closer to reality in a small church hall on Sansom Street in Philadelphia on Saturday. Marty Dowds, lead dancer of the Riverdance Boyne touring company, led them in a demanding hour-long master class sponsored by the Tapography dance school.

Dowds, dressed in a white t-shirt and drawstring jazz pants, showed up a bit late. His cab had gotten held up in traffic. He needed a shave, and his hair hadn’t been combed. Any normal human being would take a while to come up to full speed.

Dowds was raring to go in the time it took to change from his street kicks to his big, clunky hard shoes. And in less time in that, Dowds was putting two short lines of young women through their paces.

There were a couple of brief water breaks, and then on they went. It all came together in the end, as Marty urged the two short lines into one long one. Tapography’s Dave Pershica cued up the music to that big closing number.

With Dowds out in front, the students got a chance to live the Riverdance dream—if only for a few short moments. Was it perfect? No, far from it. But judging by all the smiles, it was close enough.

May 20, 2007 by Jeff Meade

Dance

Reelin’ in the Years

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.”

May 11, 2007 by Jeff Meade