Profile: It sprang from an interval show at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest and since then the money has poured in from all over the world. Now, 'Riverdance' is returning to Ireland, writes Rosita Boland.
Song contests are supposed to be about songs. Unless, of course, the song contest in question is the Eurovision, where many of the offerings sound more like rather dodgy nursery rhymes. Boom Bang-a-Bang, anyone? That was the unfortunate title of the UK entry in 1969. Ring Dinga Ding ring any bells? Holland, in 1967. Years before Tellytubbies, we had La La La from Spain in 1983; a song short on actual lyrics but long on la's - all 138 of them. Didai Didai Dai? Oh dear. Turkey, 1985.
And so, onwards the merry songless song contest rolled until 1994, when Ireland were hosting it yet again, on account of us being so excellent at writing instantly forgettable songs. That year, after we had all laughed our heads off as usual, and were trotting off to bathrooms and kitchens for the routine missable interval break before the voting, interval-break history was made.
The seven-minute performance of Riverdance, thrumming with energy and originality, blasted away the rest of the competition - and they weren't even in the competition. Actually, Ireland won the Eurovision again that year, with Rock 'n' Roll Kids, by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. Not that anyone remembers that now. It must be ever so slightly galling for a song contest to acknowledge that the most famous and successful act in its history, bar Abba, was in fact a dance act, programmed for the Cinderella-like slot of the interval.
When Michael Flatley and Jean Butler hammered their heels on the floor of the Point on April 30th, 1994, and a line of dancers' legs turned into a row of human pistons, the European television audience sat up and gaped. They weren't sure what they were watching, but they were sure it was good. And that they wanted more.
Those seven minutes proved to be a catalyst. Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, along with Mavis Ascot, had choreographed the interval piece. It inspired producer Moya Doherty, director John McColgan, and composer Bill Whelan to develop the performance into a two-hour show. Cinderella was going to the Ball - and how. When Riverdance - The Show opened at the Point in February, 1995, the five-week run sold out and got uniformly rave reviews. Crucially, it also proved that if an Irish audience was willing to pay good money to see a show that reinvented Irish dancing, well then, the wider world was Riverdance's ATM.
That same year, it sold out in London. The next year, it sold out in Radio City Music Hall, New York. It all gets a bit hazy after that, as the river divided and formed tributaries, each touring in different countries under different names. The Lagan started touring Canada. The Lee company toured the US. Just in case you're getting confused, there is now a company called the Boyne, which is permanently touring the US. Riverdance - The Show has been seen in Los Angeles, Sydney, Germany, Edmonton, Kansas, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Helsinki, New Zealand, Zurich, Beijing and just about every other major city in the world - 220 so far and still counting. A new production returns to Dublin in June, to the Gaiety.
An estimated 16 million people have so far seen it live. Prince William has seen it. So have his grandparents. So has U2, Jimmy Carter, Charlie Haughey, Ted Kennedy, Leo Sayer, Robin Williams, Twiggy and former Tory politician Cecil Parkinson, who has seen it eight times. You've probably seen it yourself. A staggering 1.5 billion have watched the show on television. The company's website, www.riverdance.com, received 14.3 million hits last month.
Some of those people logging on were probably buying the video - 6.5 million sold to date. Or the CD of the music - a comparatively paltry two million to date. The prices on the website are in dollars, presumably because our American friends are so fond of shopping. Well, who else could possibly want a $10 Riverdance baseball cap? There is, alas, no wind-up dancing Michael Flatley toy, but you can choose between a $15 rag-doll "wearing her favourite blue Irish dancing dress with embroidered Celtic design" or the more upmarket $35 porcelain doll, which, by the way, "is not a toy".
The flowing rivers of milk and honey haven't all been untainted, however. You'd be hard-pushed to find a reference to Michael Flatley on the Riverdance website. The show deservedly made Flatley and Jean Butler instant stars. It also seemed to do something interesting to Flatley's ego, which, like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin, growed and growed. There were rows, rumours and ructions in the camp. The upshot was that Flatley departed from Riverdance before its second London run in 1995.
So what happened? On CNN's Larry King Live in June 2001, King asked Flatley, "You left it or it left you?"
Flatley replied: "A little bit of both really, but the bottom line is we settled our differences. And we are all - we have all done better because of it, I think; they [Riverdance - The Show] got to travel the world with their generic show, and do the things that they wanted to do, and I got to do a bigger show, which is what I have always wanted to do."
Whatever the size of the Flatley ego, leaving Riverdance proved to be the best career move of his life, and also showed him to be a shrewd businessman. His own shows, first Lord of the Dance, and then Feet of Flames, have made him seriously wealthy. In the Sunday Times Ireland Rich List 2004, Flatley is at No 9, with a fortune of €517 million. Moya Doherty and John McColgan come in at No 61, with €101 million. Jean Butler doesn't feature in this list of the country's 200 richest.
Butler left Riverdance shortly after Flatley, and later devised her own show, Dancing on Dangerous Ground, which was unsuccessful in both London and New York. She now writes a column for The Dubliner magazine, is artist-in- residence at the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick, and is completing an MA in contemporary dance. All of these are impressive achievements but, financially, they're worlds away from those of her multi- millionaire erstwhile co-star.
Given both Butler's undisputed talent as a dancer, and her crucial role in the success of creating Riverdance, one wonders what will be going through her head this particular April 30th. But, to paraphrase Pee Flynn's immortal line, coined around the same time, that's showbusiness for you.