Video Review - Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain and Anthony McCann
2001. Ethnomusicology 46(2):366-369.
Riverdance - The Show. John McColgan, Director. Michael Flatley, Principal Choreographer.
Mary Morrow, Production Design. Produced by Tyrone/RTE Video. VHS Video;
98 minutes. 1995. Distributed by VCI Distribution Ltd., 36 Caxton Way, Watford,
Herts WD1 8UF, England. (516) 568 0084.
Lord of the Dance. John Reid, Michael Flatley, and Bill Tennant, Executive Film
Producers. David Mallet, Film Director. Andy Picheta, Film Producer.
John Reid Enterprises/A production for Unicorn Entertainment Ltd. VHS Video; 92 mins.
1996. Manufactured and Marketed by Polygram Video, a division of PolyGram Records, Inc.
New York, NY.
On the 30th April, 1994, the seven-minute interval entertainment for the much-maligned
Eurovision Song Contest stole the show. The impact of Riverdance was enormous. For the
following six months the Riverdance single was played almost constantly on Irish national
and local radio. It went straight into the Irish popular music charts at Number One,
where it stayed for eighteen weeks. In November 1994, tickets for the expanded
"Riverdance - The Show" went on sale. Within 3 weeks, sales exceeded £1 millon.
The show opened in the Point Depot, Dublin, on the 9th of February, 1995,
where 120,000 people saw it in a sell-out five week run.
The April 1995 video release of Riverdance - The Show went straight to number one
in the Irish video charts. In June of that year the video was released in the United
Kingdom, where it held the number one or number two positions for the next seven months.
The video Riverdance - The Show is awash with conflicting frames and expectations.
Classifying the show as 'Irish' is somewhat problematic: The seven-minute musical piece
"Riverdance," composed by Bill Whelan, features elements of Irish and Bulgarian musics,
among others - this allows Irish audiences to experience the sounds as a tantalising mix
of both familiar and "exotic" forms. The music and dance formats of the show are held
together by a tendentious and shallow metaphor which frames the show as an apparent
international meeting of the waters: the two main "Irish" dancers of the show,
Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, are both from Irish "diaspora" communities in
the United States; an Irish a capella choral group, a gospel choir from the United States,
a Russian ballet troupe, and a tap team from Harlem intersperse the dances in a somewhat
piecemeal production.
The Riverdance video is very obviously a staged performance first and foremost,
the technical aspects of video-specific direction being very obviously secondary
considerations. Ultimately a variety show with the concomitant bag-of-tricks,
Riverdance nonetheless comes across with a certain measure of balance, subtlety,
and understatement, amply illustrated by the effective use of silhouette lighting.
For all the hype that surrounded the charismatic "stars" of the show, it is the
power of group dancing that holds up the structure and which achieves greatest effect.
The superb, some would say mechanistic, timing and consummate skills of the highly-trained
dancers presents a forceful spectacle.
Where Riverdance is certainly successful is in skillful and knowing management
of silence, space, crescendo, and tension. Powerful symbols of an essentialised and
"authentic" Irish identity of "tradition," such as a slow air played on the uilleann pipes,
are presented with decorum and respect. Classic drums rolls, perfectly synchronized
hard-shoe routines, and fanfares, propel the male lead and audience expectations across the
stage on a number of occasions. Jung would have been proud of this production, which draws
upon all possible archetypes in an attempt to trawl the depths of the collective unconscious.
Love, loss, and longing pervade the ebb and flow of spectacle, young lovers leaving for the
promised land of multicultural nostalgia. It is perhaps this arguably calculated universality
that contributes so forcefully to the show's financial success.
After six months with Riverdance - The Show, and considerable contributions
to the show's choreography, Michael Flatley left in a much-publicized dispute over
creative control. Mutual accusations of egomania were followed by a lawsuit which
was eventually settled in 1999. Many people publicly expressed a problem with the
centrality of the personality of Michael Flatley, male lead among the dancers and
choreographer. One of the most notable personality characteristics that Flatley disclosed,
both on- and off-stage, was a driving and unapologetic confidence in his own abilities.
A step-dancer, Flatley is also a flamenco dancer, and an excellent flute player.
In 1987 he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Arts for his contributions to Irish traditional culture in the United States.
There is a strong tendency in Ireland to react negatively to unabashed individualism,
and Flatley quickly became the focus of a mild but very widespread antagonism, that
was greatly tempered by a respect for his undoubted talent (Hall 1997).
Flatley went on to produce the commercially successful show, "Lord of the Dance,"
described by one journalist as "a kind of Celts-go-Vegas answer to Riverdance"
(Riverdance File 1997). He followed this with "Feet of Flames," a more expansive development
on "Lord of the Dance" (more dancers, bigger audiences, more attitude in the costume department).
Both were lambasted by critics as being excessive, crass, egomaniacal, and full of
crude Irish stereotypes (O'Toole 1996). Regardless of criticism, since 1996 "Lord of the Dance"
has grossed in the region of £150,000,000. As well as touring troupes, "Lord of the Dance"
now also holds a permanent residency in Las Vegas.
Unlike "Riverdance," the structural import of the title metaphor
is maintained throughout the show. The plot of "Lord of the Dance" is another
one of those universally significant archetype narratives: Hero lives. Hero dies
as a result of persecution. Hero rises from the dead to immortality, thereby
exacting a victory over those who vilified him. It is hard to miss the pointedness
of such a tale in the light of litigation. Flatley is, as the show proclaims, Lord of the Dance.
The overwhelming disposition of the Lord of the Dance video is self-conscious
and self-congratulatory excess. The camerawork is elaborate (some might say gimmicky),
incorporating sweeping overheads, rapid panning, and slow-motion. Although the video
production values are far more consistent than in Riverdance, Lord of the Dance is frenetic,
lavish, fast and furious. Flatley's dancing is frenzied, balance and poise always
sacrificed to speed and virtuosity. The general pacing of the spectacle is high-energy,
high-passion, all of the time. Despite this, particularly effective are a series of
beautifully-sequenced and subtly-colourful figure-choreographies, the more measured
pace of these suggesting a guiding hand other than Flatley's. The music composed for
the show often sounds like an attempt to mimic "Riverdance" piece by piece, and it
strays towards a cleanliness that divests it of impact.
Lord of the Dance is spectacular. On many levels it is almost disturbing, inviting
reassessments of violence in spectacle, spectacle as violence, and on these levels we find
it most accessible as an educational focal point. Throughout the video we find a brutal
division of masculine and feminine stereotypes. In the male corner we have Flatley assuming
the roles of Puppet Master, Military Commander, Macho Superstud Sex-Fiend, and Christ.
In the female corner we have the polarization of virgin/whore, Odette/Odile,
Woman-in-White/Woman-in-Red. The moment of liberation for the women of virtue,
the "Breakout" as the program has it, reeks of puerile male fantasy, as the entire
female troupe whips off their dresses to their undergarments to signal this show's
burlesque ambitions.
What we find most relevant to our concerns here are the ways in which these
videos might be used in an educational context in comparative analysis. We believe
that both Riverdance and Lord of the Dance allow for extensive exploration of
crucial discursive polarisations of tradition and innovation, individual and
collective, male and female, performers and audience, fluidity and rigidity. They allow for
in-depth examinations of the dynamics of power relations within contexts of performance and
contexts of spectacle, movement, and dance. Lord of the Dance in particular allows
for investigations into the power of personality, the cult of the artist, and the
spectacular disclosure of bluntly gendered narratives of freedom and control.
References
Hall, Frank. 1997. "Your Mr. Joyce is a Fine Man, But Have You Seen Riverdance?" New Hibernia Review - Iris Eireannach Nua
1(3):134-142.
O'Toole, Fintan. 1996. The Ex-Isle of Erin: Images of a Global Ireland. Dublin: New Island Books.
Riverdance File. 1999.
http://www.canoe.ca/TheatreReviewsR/riverdance.html
