Meave Crooke , Riverdance Dance Captain and Darren Maguire held an Irish step dance workshop with the children of the Ballet Hawaii dance group between shows during Riverdance’s recent tour in Honolulu.   Maeve worked in soft shoes with the class.

On a break from their workshop Meave shows the students her Irish dance shoe. Darren Maguire looks on.

Meave with members of the Ballet Hawaii at the irish step dance workshop

Photos by Merle Frimark

Read this on the Riverdance website: Children’s dance workshop

And so all good things come to an end…the Shannon Company have successfully completed another six and a half week tour across the state of California and finishing up in the beautiful city of Honolulu on the island of O’ahu. With an early flight into Honolulu from LAX, we used the time difference (gaining 2 hours!) to our advantage and after checking into the Hilton Waikiki on Kuhio Avenue, it was all guns blazing! We strolled along the beachfront and were greeted by crashing waves, blue skies and clear sea and the softest white sand you can imagine!

Fiona on Waikiki Beach

With the abundance of sushi restaurants and fresh seafood diners, I had a sneaky suspicion my hunger would be satisfied! With a quick scout around Waikiki by foot, the evening soon threatened and several of us set about to seek our first Hawaiian dinner. We decided upon The Side Street Cafe on Hopaka Street as featured on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” and Adam Richman’s “Man Vs. Food Nation” (Travel channel). Well Bourdain, that got our stamp of approval too! With several rich Asian & Hawaiian cuisine, we rolled back to our hotel. Jet lag and tiredness called so our first day drew to a close.

Patrick Mangan and Fiona McCabe enjoying the local cocktail

After a good night’s sleep, we rose early the next morning and set about renting bicycles for the day. Ten dollars later, we found ourselves cycling along the bike route to the beautiful foot of Diamond Head (Le’ahi) which is situated along Waikiki’s eastern coastline. This broad, crater was formed 300,000 years ago after a single volcanic eruption. we embarked on the steep 0.8 mile trail to the summit in the hot midday sun. The view that awaits is breath taking and please do make time to include this in your trip for my readers who are planning to include Honolulu in their next vacation!!! The old lighthouse and bunkers dating back to the early 1900′s can be seen from the top as well as Koko Heaed and Wai’anae. Don’t forget your camera!

Breathtaking views from diamond Head summit

Have you ever snorkeled? Until I hit Hanauma Bay the next day, I had not yet ticked snorkeling off my to do list. Boy, was I glad flamenco dancer Marita Martinez Jiminez-Rey dragged me along at 8 o clock in the morning. We set off towards the cove along with dancers John Grimes and Maeve Fearon. After a brief video introduction, we were all guns blazing down to the shoreline. Snorkel: Check. Goggles: Check. Flippers: Check. The four of us waded in to the chilly water and hoped we’d come out alive. What a serene underworld it was. If only I had an waterproof camera to show you how extravagant the marine life was. Every size fish, every color imaginable swam right in front of our eyes. The brightest of yellows and vibrant reds and blues. Not to mention the coral. Thirty minutes easily went by and we all met back on the beach to warm up and swap our exciting stories. Amongst the exhilarated banter we lapped up the soft morning sunshine and heated up just in time for one last swim.

Hanauma Bay

John Grimes and Marita Martinez (Riverdance snorkel team!)

Before the hectic weekend of six shows kicked in, we snapped up the chance in visiting the Vans Triple Crown Surf Championships (also known as the Billabong Pipe Master) in the North Shore. Seated comfortably in a fancy BMW four-wheel drive (on lend through a very generous friend) Matt Bashford (uileann piper), Patrick Mangan (fiddle player) and I hit the H1 West highway to the shore. It was remarkable to see such a different way of living up in the northern territory. Relaxed is not the word! I soon defined this as I found myself horizontal in the sand watching waves twenty-five foot high crashing only inches from my sandy feet. A record of twelve surf boards had been claimed by the vicious waves that particular morning at the event along with several cameras and video equipment. Not to mention the poor surfers battered, swollen ankles! The buzz about the place was so uplifting watching the professional surfers work their magic and wowing the crowds of onlooking spectators.

Spectators at the pipe masters

After a run of eight very successful shows and another notch in Riverdance’s history (first time to perform in Hawaii), I am pleased to say we couldn’t have wrapped up a more enjoyable tour in a more magical place. Hawaii truly lived up to everything it ever claimed to be. And so this brings me back to the famous quote of Geoffrey Chaucer; Everything must end, even good things! So for now I shall hang up my dance shoes and will have to satisfy myself instead with Christmas gift wrapping, gorging in homemade mince pies and catching up with old friends over the holidays.
Isn’t life tough?!

Enjoying fun times together: From left to right: Nichole Hull (Wardrobe) Brigid Brown (Wardrobe), Marita Martinez (Flamenco dancer), Fiona McCabe and Niamh O' Connor (Irish dancers)

Merry Christmas to all of you.
-Fiona

P.S. Here’s my December Style File – Enjoy!

Read this on the Riverdance website: Riverdance ends 2011 in Hawaii

Craig Ashurst and Tannya Joaquin

Watch Craig Ashurst during his live TV appearance on Hawaii News Now ‘Sunrise Morning Show’ where he teaches anchorperson Tannya Joaquin a few steps.

Watch Craig here!

Caterina teaches a step to host on Kohn2

Caterina Coyne teaches a step to the host on Kohn2

Watch Caterina here!

Read this on the Riverdance website: Craig Ashurst and Caterina Coyne on Hawaii TV

Here are some photos from the week…

Caterina Coyne did radio interview with arts and culture reporter Noe Tanigawa at Hawaii Public Radio

Caterina Coyne at Ohana Broadcasting

Caterina Coyne being interviewed on Ohana Broadcasting

Caterina Coyne being interviewed on the popular morning radio program Perry & Price (Michael Perry & Larry Price) broadcast live on KSSK Radio from Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber (located at the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort). There is a live audience there for breakfast

Caterina teaches an Irish dance step to a member of the breakfast audience!

Caterina Coyne with oldies 107.9 DJ Ed Kanoi

Read this on the Riverdance website: Press Calls in Hawaii

To the list of things Irish — soda bread, whiskey, coffee, corned beef and cabbage, U2 and Daniel Day-Lewis — add Riverdance.

The Irish cultural sensation is all about the ecstasy of the feet — step dancing with unified cadence, creating a tap-estry much like “42nd Street” musical lineup of dancers on steroids. With Riverdance, the flow mostly is swift, frenzied, and constant, literally like a gushing river to which the show owes its name.

There’s a collision of sound and movement, but a happy one; the music is richly Celtic, but with occasional soft-as-silk vocal variations and periodic departures into the realm of flamenco dance. And yes, even bluesy tap executions reminiscent of Gregory Hines or Savion Glover splendidly staged as a Celtic/street dance competition among 10 of the snappiest feet (five guys) in the ranks.

The production, which debuted in Honolulu Wednesday night for a brief run through Sunday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, features two dozen dancers who frequently move as one synchronized unit, engaging in stunning precision and galvanized by tradition.

Its frenetic, fierce tempos appear competitive but are winningly collaborative, with potent and thunderous step dancing; the technique raises cultural dancing to theatrical levels as storytelling and emotions are expressed via feet with arms and body generally rigid.

Craig Ashurst

It is high-energy, high-octane, high-voltage stuff. The amplified footwork (mics in the shoes? on the floor?) heightens the excitement and the adrenalin.

“Riverdance” is rooted in Irish history; the name is derivative of a flowing river, with tributaries coming together the way cultures meld. The tradition taps Celtic tales, some with mythological influences.

The title song that closes Act I is an evolutionary tale with historical relevance, as the full cast of dancers projects the power of flowing waters fertilizing, then flooding, barren land but prompting a burst of celebratory joy. It’s the production’s iconic parallel of the leggy, kicky signature of the Radio City Hall Rockettes.

Lead dancers Craig Ashurst and Alana Mallon bring requisite glamour and style in several numbers, showing workout agility in one instance, feeling the love in another.

Ashurst also is buoyant, at times springing into high leaps and twirling like a top. Mallon switches from balletic beauty to step dancing sizzler in her solo turns.

Alana Mallon

Marita Martinez-Rey is a Spaniard who specializes in the rich tradition of flamenco, providing fiery and seductive twists with arms and hands help telling her stories.

Not surprisingly, the audience favorite is the aforementioned tap-challenge routine, dubbed “Trading Taps,” where rigorous step-and-tap exchanges pit Michael E. Wood and Benjamin Mapp as soulful street dancers vs. Ashurst, Padraic Moyles and Jason O’Neill as traditional step dancers. With pride at stake, spectators can take sides, too.

The atmospheric musical score, by Bill Whelan, provides the colorful sound pallet that blankets the production. Happily, there are charming and revealing instrumental interludes by soloists in the five-piece band that’s on stage, notably Patrick Mangan on fiddle and Matt Bashford on the Uilleann pipes. On one hand, the instrumentalists take solo turns centerstage, sans dancers; on the other, they’re periodically integrated with the choreography — a very smart use of talented resources.

The production employs a central screen, framed by hanging banners, to project images that alternately look like photos and paintings to “set” the dance pieces. In some instances, there’s video in the holographic realm.

A team of choreographers is credited with the dance creations, including Michael Flatley, the iconic step dancing soloist who left the Riverdance ranks to lead a spin-off “Lord of the Dance” company. And so the river flows.

Set in 13 scenes plus a finale, Riverdance runs nearly two hours with an intermission. With all that energy shared, there’s no apparent sweating on stage. But as one spectator was heard as she exited, “Makes you wanna go home and get dancing. Except I sweat.” Indeed.
———

Remaining performances for Riverdance are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 3 and 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25, $45, $55 and $75, available at the Blaisdell Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets at Walmart and the Sports Gear Warehouse in Windward Mall, charge-by-phone 800-745-3000 and online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Read Wayne Harada’s Show Biz column Sundays in the Today section of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, as well as his Show and Tell Hawaii blog at www.staradvertiser.com. You can reach him at wayneharada@gmail.com.

Read this on the Riverdance website: Review ‘Riverdance is a cultural sensation’

In the 17 years since a televised Irish step-dancing performance set to original music captivated Europe and started it all, Riverdance has become an international sensation, spawning hit soundtracks, a Broadway show, touring companies and rival Irish touring shows, as well as a new, global appreciation for the beauty of Irish dance and music.
There have been many firsts, including performances for the Queen of England and in Beijing, where “Riverdance” was the largest Western musical production to be presented in China.

In the U.S., Riverdance made its debut in 1996 with the first of six runs at Radio City Music Hall, and held down the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway for 18 months in 2000-2001. Over the course of the current tour, Riverdance has stopped at some cities two, three and even four times, traveling the equivalent of “to the moon and back,” producers note.
In a few months, there will be a “last” — a last show, as the North American tour of Riverdance comes to an end.

But not before Riverdance chalks up one more first. On Wednesday, the company lands for the first time in Hawaii.

The touring company includes six principal dancers, 18 troupe dancers, a live five-piece band, flamenco dancer and two American tap dancers, one of whom is also a baritone soloist.

Most of the dancing is drawn closely from traditional Irish step dancing, in which the arms and body move little and heels, toes and legs create the sound and action. Troupe members are expected to be “champion-level” Irish dancers. However, acrobatics, tap and, yes, flamenco also have a part in the production, along with en pointe pirouetting and graceful arm movement drawn from ballet.

Sound, backdrops and lighting add to the sense of drama, as does the show itself, which portrays Ireland and Irish culture in a mythic fashion, from ancient existence through Celtic actualization, famine and the great American emigration, before bringing it all back home again.

PADRAIC MOYLES (pronounced “Poor-ick Moy-ells), the dark-haired, deeply dimpled lead dancer for the company, was in a California hotel room in between performances when I called. He was happy to acknowledge some extraordinary experiences connected with Riverdance, like making a music video with Shania Twain, performing at a private event in Egypt with Mariah Carey, and returning to Ireland for summer performances. But Moyles was most animated when he spoke of the inner fire that motivates him to perform.

“I want to exceed people’s expectations,” he said, his Irish accent muted by the lengthy time he’s spent on tour in the states. “We come from a competitive background. You go out there every night and give it everything you have. You must always prove yourself. Going to Hawaii? That’s a massive motivating factor for me. I hope that everyone in Hawaii realizes that it is our first time and also our last,” he said, sounding more stoic than wistful, but adding, “One of the reasons I’ve always stayed in America is I didn’t think the audience could be any better anywhere else.”

After this North American tour ends, however, Moyles will move on with Riverdance, to Australia, New Zealand and back to Ireland. The production will continue in Ireland and on other stages, but not in America.

JULIAN ERSKINE, Senior Executive Producer who called in from Dublin, said a deep love for the show’s artistry abides within the team, even after all these years.

“The level of enthusiasm and pride in what they do is what comes off the stage,” he said. Erskine advises audiences to “watch the feet,” though there are other temptations.

“Remember that 95 percent of this happens from the waist down,” he said cheerfully. “The dancers actually play music with their feet. You hear extraordinary rhythms beating out. You’re hearing a left and right, a treble and a bass being broken out with the dancers’ feet. Look at the musicians. There is not a sheet of music anywhere. We’ve always insisted that is be treated like a ceili — a party. Its not a performance. It’s not a sort of masque. It’s live. It’s organic. It’s an event powered by pride.”

Where:                Blaisdell Concert Hall Honolulu, Hawaii.
When:                  December 7 – 11, 2011
Cost:                    $25, $45, $55, $75; opening-night military discounts at box office

Book Online:     www.ticketmaster.com

Box Office:         800-745-3000

Honolulu Star Advertiser 2nd December 2011 by Elizabeth Kieszkowski

Read this on the Riverdance website: Riverdance makes Hawaii debut