Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

We only had a short stay in Lille, with one show on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. Unfortunately this is where we had to bid a sad farewell to a few company members who were heading off to join the Bann Company that will be touring China and Korea for the next couple of months. Those leaving were Alanna McCrudden who is taking over the position of Company Manager, and Irish Dancers Niamh McDarby, Mairead Masuada, Deirdre Hamilton, Anthony Fallon, Jason Oremus and Brendan Dorris. They will be rejoining us again the end of February. On the bright side we welcomed four new Irish dancers to the Company - Katie Hands, Craig Mason, Caitlin Nic Gabhann and Gillian Madders. Prior to joining us on tour, they spent a week training in Dublin with our dance director Breandán De Gallai and also Eileen Martin. Also this week old company members Darren Casey and Justin Walsh rejoined us.

Katie, Caitlin, Craig and Gillian

As we travelled to Lyon on Thursday we decided that we would celebrate dancer Damian Doherty’s 30th birthday on the Wednesday night as this way we were able to have a last night out with the people going to China and also welcome the new troupe members. We all headed out to the Irish Bar Tir na Nog and had a great night -especially Damian.

Unfortunately we were up early in the morning as we had a nine-hour bus journey to get to Lyon. Just like Lille, we only had a flying visit to Lyon, and because we were staying beside the theatre we didn’t get to check out the city at all as our schedule was so busy. We had one show on Friday, two on Saturday and then one on Sunday. Sunday was very exciting though as Ciara Mc Gillen (who has been training for the past couple of months for the Female lead role) got to do her Dress Rehearsal and I have to say she looked amazing. The girl’s dressing room was full of excitement as we were helping her out with her hair and make-up.

Ciara getting ready!

Next week Ciara performs the lead role for the first time in front of an audience so we want to wish her the best of luck, check back next week to see a picture of Ciara in costume. Next we head to both Strasbourg and Nantes so hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer as well.

Bye for now

Patricia

Patricia Hanry, Dancer, Corrib Company

Bienvenue en Paris!!!

We all came back refreshed after our few days off - some of us went home for while and others stayed in Paris and relaxed. We are now looking forward to having only four weeks left until we get home for Christmas, so those few days off after Russia really broke up the tour.

For those of us who went home we didn’t arrive back to Paris until Monday night so we went straight to bed, as we knew we had a lot of sightseeing in the week ahead. Tuesday was miserable day as it was cold, windy and it rained all day, so we decided that it was a good day to go and check out the famous museum The Louvre.

The Louve

Naturally enough the first piece of art that we decided to check out was the famous Mona Lisa. It was amazing but at the same time I expected it to be a lot bigger in size, it’s actually quite small and is protected by a glass case.

Mona Lisa

Fortunately the rest of the week the weather was lovely and dry, a little cold but dry. We all spent the week wandering around Paris taking in the spectacle views. Using the Metro makes everything in Paris so easy to get to - it’s so quick, cheap and frequent. All within walking distance from each other are the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triumph. Both the Eiffel Tower and The Arc de Triumph are truly magnificent buildings which give you magnificent views of the city of Paris, while the Champs Elysees is the main shopping street in Paris. It has all the big stores, along with Christmas markets where souvenirs and gifts are sold.

Eiffel Tower

Paris has many beautiful cathedrals and churches both unfortunately we only got to see two of them, but they were probably the two main ones. Notre Dame is a large cathedral, which has spectacular window pains, the colours used in them are just amazing Even the architecture on the outside of the building was breath taking.

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur is situated in the area Montmartre and this is aimed more at the tourist as it is surrounded by little streets with souvenir shops and artists on hand to draw your portrait. However the Cathedral is situated on a hill above all of these and you can get a stunning view of the entire city of Paris, it really is beautiful.

Sacre Coeur

We had our last show on Sunday, and most of the company travelled onto Lille on Monday. A small group of dancers remained in Paris to make a recording for a TV show on Channel 2 in France.

Next week is a split week in Lille and Lyon where we have some people leaving and some new people joining the company.

Au revoir!!!

Patricia

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

We arrived in to St. Petersburgh on the Saturday evening and we got a nice surprise to see the ground covered in snow! On the down side though, it was freezing. We were all shattered from our days travelling so we didn’t get up too much that first evening. The next day we got up early and headed in to the city on the Metro to do some sightseeing. St.Petersburgh is an amazing city with lots to see and do, the architecture is simple a must see too. The first day we walked around the city for about two hours taking pictures of The Winter Palace, The Fortress (which houses the famous Cathedral of the Apostles Saint Peter and Paul along with many Museums and galleries) and many more buildings also. It was completely different to the architecture we seen in Moscow, St. Petersburg is a lot more European than Moscow.

Steve, Scott & Laura

Another day we spent checking out the Hermitage Museum, which is located in the Winter Palace. The museum is one of the largest museums in the world, it has 1,945 windows, 1,786 doors and three million works of Art, if you spent 1 minute on each piece of art it would take you nearly five years to leave the museum. A few of the more famous artists that have works on display are Vincent Van Gough, Monet, Matisse, and Rembrandt along with many more which are sure to make you gasp!

Winter Palace

Our last night in St.Petersburgh we were lucky enough not to have a show, so instead we all went along to see a Ballet. This was the first time for most of us to see a ballet and I have to say that we really enjoyed it, the only thing about it was that it lasted nearly three hours, so that was rather tough but other than that we had a very enjoyable evening.

Sarah, Jason, Sarah and Tony

The audiences both in Moscow and St.Petersburgh really enjoyed the show and gave us a very warm welcome, we found it a little strange the first couple of nights because they weren’t that loud, but we soon realised that they are more use to going to the Opera or to the Ballet where the audience is more reserved in showing their appreciation for the show.

The next day it was time to leave Russia, and because the next city we performed in was Paris it meant that it was going to take a few days to get the trucks there so we had a few days off. Most of us got the opportunity to fly home for the weekend while others got to stay in Paris and have a few days off. Luckily for a few of the Irish who stayed, they got to go to the Ireland V France game which was played in Paris, and we all no the result of that game! They all said that they really enjoyed the game and that there was a great atmosphere there.

After our few days off we perform in Paris for a week, so check back next week to see what we get up to in Paris…

Patricia

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

At last we arrived into Moscow on the Monday after a two and half hour flight, and the first thing we experienced was a very long wait for passport control, we were queuing for over an hour, but were still excited to finally be in Russia. Even though it was late when we got to hotel, Alexi one of the Male members of the Russian dancers had organised a night club to open for us owned by a friend of his, it was only open to us and not the public, we were able to get both food and drink there. The interior of the club was amazing as it was furnished with white leather couches, low ceilings with a modern décor. We were told that it is very hard to gain entry to the club on a normal night as it very expensive and tables are reserved way in advance.

Dane, Sarah, Patricia, Laura and Chris

Tuesday we had the day off so we were free to roam about ourselves, most of us spent the day finding our way around Moscow and The Kremlin. There was so much to see in Moscow, we had something to see everyday up until Saturday when we left. The company had employed translators while we were in Moscow, so one of the girls named Toma was kind enough to give us some of her time by showing us round the Kremlin and Red Square, so in a way we had our own private tour. The architecture within the Kremlin and The Red Square is simply out of this world, you could not even try to explain it, even the photos below do not do it justice, it really has to been seen with your own eyes!

Just off The Red Square underground there is a shopping centre which was very European. It had shops such as Topshop, Oasis, Mango, Pull and Bear, Accessorize and quit a few more. The only problem with the shops was that they were very expensive, but Moscow in general is pretty expensive.

One thing that I found amazing was the traffic problems in Moscow city, drivers don’t seem to worry too much about staying in lanes or obeying traffic lights etc, it was even a scary experience trying to cross the road. There doesn’t seem to be rules of the road, I personally would not like to be a learner driver over there!

On the last night Alexi again organised another night for the company.This time we were able to sample some real authentic Russian food and drink, and we had another very enjoyable night. On behalf of the company I would like to say a big thanks to Alexi and his wife Louba who were so good to us in Moscow, as they organised loads for us, and we also great at translating into English for us.

We were kind of sad to leave Moscow, but excited at the same time to see St. Petersburgh as we had heard that it was completely different to Moscow.

Until then…

Patricia

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

We arrived into Bremen on the Thursday evening, and for most of us this was our second time visiting Bremen, as we had our Halloween party here two years ago. After relaxing for a while we all went our separate ways to get food and meet up later on in the night in Paddy’s Irish bar, which was just around the corner from the hotel. It was nice as this was our first day off in a while, we had done eleven shows in a row, so our legs were a little tired.

Barry John, Chris and Parker

As you all probably know the Michael Jackson Movie was released this week so over the few nights in Bremen, most of the company made there way to the cinema to check out the movie Michael Jackson, This Is It. It was great because the Cinema was right next door to the hotel. For any of you who haven’t gone to see it I would definitely recommend it. It’s unbelievable what he was still able to do, so make sure you go check it out.

Monday we had to say a sad goodbye to a much-loved Darren Maguire who had been out for the week replacing Brendan Campbell who had gone to China. Darren was a member of the company for many years, and it was great having him out as he brightened up the company for the week he was here, he brought a smile to everyone’s face with his many jokes.

With Darren flying back home, we were all getting very excited as we were heading off to Russia for 10days, visiting Moscow first and then St. Petersburg.

So I am sure ill have lots to fill you in on next week after our tour of Russia.

Until then bye!!!!

Patricia

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

After a nice short journey on the bus we arrived into Braunschweig in the afternoon. We weren’t able to do much as we had to get ready and go straight into work as we had a show to perform that night. I have to say it was the best audience we’ve had so far on the tour. They seemed to have really enjoyed themselves and because of that so did we. It made travelling and performing on the same day a lot easier for us.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent wandering around the town, and what a pleasant surprise we got as we did not expect it to be so nice. It’s a very quaint little town but with a lot to see in it, the different architecture alone is incredible, from the old churches to the modern buildings. Even the shopping centre was unusual because unless you knew that it was a shopping centre you would think that it was a town hall or University because of its design.

We also had a lot of fun after the show back in the hotel, because there was a pool table and a Nintendo Wii that we could use. So each night we played games such as Killer on the pool table and Bowling and Tennis on the Wii. We had great fun!

More next time in Bremen

Patricia

Patricia Henry, Troupe Dancer, Corrib Company

After another four show weekend we were back on the bus and heading to Hamburg, for a lot of us this was our second time in Hamburg so it was nice that we knew where we were going and what there was to do. As it is such a lovely city, a lot of the company had relatives and friends over to visit, so we were very busy for the week. Hamburg is a great city to go shopping in and also there are some lovely sights to see.

Toby & Scott

We were all very busy this week getting ready for Halloween as we were having our party on the Thursday night, because with four shows the weekend we wouldn’t have been able to have it on the Saturday night. Luckily there was a very good costume shop in Hamburg for us to get our outfits, however others were very creative and made their costumes from scratch. Everyone made such an effort and we had great fun. Here are just a few pictures for you to see the different costumes.

Jason & Caroline

Scott, Steve & Sarah

Deirdre & Lazlo

Patricia, Kieran & Laura

Laura & Barry John

Best costumes went to Kieran, Dane, Jason O Neill, Scott, Caroline, Jason Oreamus and Gosha.

The party was the highlight of the week for all of us, and with just a week left in Germany this tour, we are all getting very excited about heading to Russia. But first we have a split week between Braunschweig and Bremen. I’m on the bus now to Braunschweig so come back next week to see how our last week in Germany goes.

Bye!

Patricia

Patrica Henry, Troupe Dancer, Corrib Company

Well after a rather long travel day by bus, we arrived into Oberhausen late in the evening with only enough time to get food and head to bed as we were all wrecked from our travel day. The next day we were able to explore what was around the hotel, we were staying in a very quiet little area with not a lot to do so most of our days that week were spent strolling around the shopping centre which was next door to the venue so that was very handy. I believe that it is the biggest shopping centre in Europe, as well as shops it has plenty of restaurants to choose from, and of course the Irish were delighted as it had a lovely Irish Bar called Án Crannóg, which served amazing food and a decent pint of Guinness.

Irish Bar

The Arena that we were performing in was enormous, but thankfully we performed to sell out crowds all week. An interesting piece of information of the history of Riverdance that I heard during the week was that this was the first venue that Riverdance ever performed in Germany.

Oberhausen Arena

The Corrib company got great news though at the end of the week, two of our female troupe dancers, Ciara McGillan and Mairead Masuda were picked to be the next Female lead dancers in the show, Ciara will be going on in a few weeks here in the Corrib while Mairead will be performing the Lead role with the Bann company when they head to China in a few weeks. So big congratulations girls!

Ciara McGillan and Mairead Masuda

Next stop Hamburg!

Patricia

Hi Everyone!

I am Deirdre Hamilton, a lead dancer with the Corrib company. We have just recently begun our European tour. At the moment we are in Germany and getting ready to head to Russia very soon! Exciting stuff. I am going to be giving you all a little inside look on what the life of a lead dancer in Riverdance is like! There are six of us here on tour. Three girls and three boys. It is a very special job that we have and I am so lucky to be here….so I would like to share some of my experiences with you!

Getting back in shape before the tour!

Rehearsing 'Countess' before tour with my imaginary Russians!

We opened this tour in Ljubljana, Slovenia on September 28. There were 4200 people in the audience! My first night dancing lead was our second show. My partner that night was Alan Kenefick. It was very exciting and nerve-wrecking to dance lead that night! I had finished the last U.K. tour in May and had time off from touring since then. After such a long time off it is a bit scary to get on stage again….but very fun.

In dressingroom getting ready for the show to start.

I have to say it was tough getting through the first number, Countess Cathleen. It is quite a long number, and it is very tiring. No matter how much i try to keep myself fit when I am off the road nothing can really compare to the feeling of actually being on stage and pushing myself 150%. So it can be a bit of a shock to the system being back on stage! But luckily the nerves, adrenaline, the audience, and our great cast and crew all help to get us all back in the swing of things and enjoying our time on stage! Prior to heading on stage for Countess Cathleen, another thing that was worrying me was the lift that the Russian dancers do with the female lead. The timing of that lift has to of course be perfect otherwise it doesn’t work so well! Although, no matter what I might do to nearly mess it up, those amazing guys always take control and make sure things go smoothly! Even so, they were kind enough to make sure we had time to rehearse the lift enough times before the show so that I felt comfortable with it again. Alexey, Danila, and Oleg are always very helpful and patient, and even offer words of encouragement on stage which gives me a real boost.

Getting Dressed for Countess Cathleen

The rest of the show seemed to go smoothly. Alan and I had a great time. It was also his first show back as lead this tour and we had an incredible audience to welcome us back. The Slovenian audience was one of the best I have ever performed infront of. There was a great energy coming from them throughout the entire show. There was such a huge ovation during the finale that I was quite emotional. Having such a wonderful response from the audience really reminds me why I love my job so much! It is a feeling that can not be described with words, but only felt. That might sound a bit cheesy, but it’s true!

Friday October 1, we headed off to Vienna, Austria. Our first show there was a matinee on Saturday at 3pm. Our first show in a new city is not usually a matinee, so there was an extra early start in Vienna for our crew! Many of the crew members were already at the theatre starting to set up at 2:30 in the morning! Us dancers have the easy job….we definitely can’t complain! Our crew does a lot of hard work so that we can get up on stage and dance our best. I was in the theatre at about 12:15pm that afternoon. I was dancing the lead that afternoon with Alan Scariff. I was fortunate enough to have two friends drive all the way from Budapest, Hungary that afternoon to watch the show. It always makes performing the show that extra bit more special when you know someone in the audience. At 12:55pm (one of my favourite parts of the day!), I headed to the massage room for a very enjoyable massage with Tony Clark, our massage therapist. No matter how I’m feeling when I enter Tony’s room, physically and mentally, I always leave feeling much better! Not only do his amazing massages make my legs feel great, but he always has something encouraging to say to me which always helps get me in a good frame of mind for the show. The leads always get a massage a couple of hours before the show starts. It is something that really helps us feel good and prepare for the show, and something to really look forward to! The show went great and I met up with my friends from Hungary for a coffee afterwards. They loved the show and were very proud of me! They said they even almost cried when I came on stage for Countess Cathleen. It can be quite emotional for close friends and family to come and watch me in the show because they know what a dream come true it is for me to be dancing this role! It was so nice to have them there in the audience.

Wednesday the 6th of October, we were on our way to Zurich, Switzerland. It was short stop in Zurich with only four shows in three days. We opened on Thursday night. The audiences were great in Zurich. It was a huge venue for about 4000 people and we were packed at each show. I danced the lead at the Saturday matinee with Joe Moriarty. We had a great show…no worries….until the finale when my costume opened! Ahhhh! I danced out for my finale solo and just as I jumped into a big spin in the air the zipper at the back of my top broke and opened all the way up the the top. I was worried my whole top might fall off, but luckily it held on and I think my very long hair managed to do the trick in making my little costume malfunction not too obvious to the audience! Joe tried his best to hide my back from the audience as we took our final bows. Things like that are all part of the fun of performing live. You never know what might happen, and you just have to go with the flow!

Me in the Tempodrom Berlin

From Zurich we headed to Germany’s capital city, Berlin. We were playing at The Tempodrom which was a lovely venue with a bit of a circus tent-like feeling inside with its high, pointed ceilings. We had an extra long week there, performing 9 shows as opposed to our usual 8 shows in a week. It was a great city to have an extra day in as there was a lot to see and learn about with all the history there. We opened on Monday night and my first show as lead was on Thursday night with Joe. Normally the leads get rotated around and our partners are always changing. It’s great like that because it is nice for us all to have a chance to dance with each other at times. It always makes for a slightly different feeling each time we do the show. That night was a lot of fun because there were some other Riverdance dancers there to watch the show! Some of the dancers who are not on tour at the moment were in Berlin to dance on a German television programme that weekend, so they came in to watch the show. It was nice to be performing for our friends….but we also knew there was no room for error with the experts watching! Hopefully they weren’t too critical of us all!

Well, that’s all from me for now. I will be back to let you know about any more interesting happenings in the next few weeks….and hopefully my costumes will stay on!!!

Deirdre

by Anthony Fallon, Corrib Company

Hey everyone!
This is my blog on my time teaching Ross Anthony aka Rossy on the hit German dance show “YES WE CAN DANCE”.
I taught Ross Anthony, the male principle role of “Riverdance” for a Live performance on prime time television.

September 25th, I arrived in Germany with the Riverdance cast to begin our Farewell tour by dancing on the “Carmen Nebel show”.
Before rehearsals for the show Julian Erskine and myself set off to the sports hall in Duisburg to meet Ross for the first time. I must say Ross is a bubbly character. We got straight to business - I don’t think Ross realised what he had put himself up for .
We started with the basics. This first dance class was recorded as part of the “YES WE CAN DANCE” rehearsals - it put both Ross and myself under a lot of pressure - but the laugh we had was worth it . Gradually, Ross started to get the hang of it and just as he got comfortable, he was surprised with the appearance of ten of the Riverdance troupe, who had come to dance alongside him. We started slowly but gradually he was getting more and more into it. But unfortunately for Ross, we had no time left as we had to leave for the our performance on the “Carmen Nebel show”.

Whilst the rest of the Riverdance Corrib company headed to Slovenia for the tour, I headed to Berlin for a week’s rehearsal with Ross.
We had a lot of work to do and not a lot time considering our busy schedules. I met Ross on day one of our four day rehearsals and began going back over the basics that we had done in Duisburg.
All was looking good, so it was time to start the good stuff - The solo routine! We started slowly with a few high clicks here and there. I think Ross was quite shocked when he realised it was not at all as easy as he had thought and the shoes were getting more and more painful . Gradually after a few days of rehearsals, it was time to meet the Riverdancers from the Riverdance ‘Flying Squad’ who had flown in from Ireland and the UK.
Before we knew it we were in tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals and then it was Showtime. We were all so excited and considering the hard work Ross had put in, we really wanted to do our best. The show was brilliant and Ross had done us proud and now it was time for the good stuff. The Results!
Ross, of course, wowed the audience. Presenter Kai Pflaume announced Rossy as the winner by the public vote. We were all so excited - we had qualified for the final.
October 15th, Riverdance was playing in Berlin Tempedrom for the week and it was also the week of the final of ““YES WE CAN DANCE” also in Berlin.

Thursday arrived and I was on the way back out to the studio to meet with Ross for a rehearsal for the final.
Ross had been busy with work commitments and I was on tour in Zurich and Vienna so it was a well needed rehearsal.
We got straight into it and thankfully Ross had been working on his material. Once again before we knew it the Riverdance Flying Squad troupe had flown in and we were in dress rehearsal for the final. We were all so excited as we had won the previous heat with Ross and wanted to do it again.

We were all pumped up and it was show time. The audience went crazy for Ross and we had a standing ovation the whole way through the performance. It was such a good buzz, we all came off on a high. Then it was results time. It got down to the last two acts and one was to be named the winner. It was so intense.
Unfortunately for us it was Stefan the ‘Michael Jackson Act’ who won. We were disappointed.
But it was good to know Ross and Stefan split the prize money 50 / 50 between their chosen charities.

We had a great night at the after show party and it was such a great experience
Congrats Rossy and on behalf of “Riverdance” it was a pleasure.
Thanks to all who voted!
Anthony

Ross Anthony and Anthony Fallon