RiverDance – Sold, Prints Available

Print available for this painting

Original Sold, Prints Available

What is Riverdance?

<Riverdance – The following is from the Popejoy Hall Website – http://popejoypresents.com/2015-2016/riverdance>

At a basic level, Riverdance is a display of music, dancing and singing. On a deeper level, it is the story of Ireland and its people. Like a river fed by many tributaries, then flowing into the ocean, the Irish people came from many different places, and then centuries later, moved out of Ireland to other parts of the world. On another level, it is the story of humanity’s creative exploration of nature through the arts. The show not only features Irish dance, but Spanish, Russian and African-American dance as well. This creative expression came from different sources, like tributaries, but all merge into the mighty river that is their common creation.

Riverdance was originally conceived as the interval act for Ireland’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. Nobody ever dreamed that one seven-minute dance would make Riverdance the success it is today.

Following the success of that performance, producer Moya Doherty, composer Bill Whelan, and director John McColgan expanded the piece into a full-length stage production that explores the evolution of Irish music, song and dance.

When he was writing the music for Riverdance, composer Bill Whelan was inspired by Ireland’s Liffey River. The river, which originates in the Wicklow Mountains and runs through the Republic of Ireland’s capital—Dublin—before emptying into the Irish Sea, gave Whelan an idea for the name of the show that celebrated Irish culture. Whelan says, “It was based on the life of the river: quiet at source, it would interact with the land, feeding it and nourishing it, and rush out to sea.” Since Riverdance’s world premiere at Dublin’s Point Theatre in 1995, over 21 million people worldwide have seen the show.

The Shoes

Though Riverdancers make lots of noise, they use shoes that are quite different from tap shoes.  The heel is 2 inches high and the shoe’s tip is fiberglass. The dancers actually travel with several pairs. It takes a lot to break in new shoes, which often look as if they’ve been run over by a car. Each dancer breaks in shoes differently, and all the dancers are responsible for maintaining their own shoes.

The Music

Riverdance showcases the musicians onstage alongside the dancers and singers. Usually in a musical or opera, the band is in the area just under the lip of the stage called “the pit.” But composer Bill Whelan came from a rock’n’roll tradition and insisted that the Riverdance band be visible, to interact with the performers and the audience.

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This Painting is titled “Riverdance”.   It has many dancing tributaries searching for new paths combined with quiet soothing blue waters. The mixture of the vibrant, expressive colors combined with the explicit and vocal movements all interact to create its own Riverdance.

“Practice like you’ve never won, Perform like you’ve never lost.”

 “Every dance you make belongs to you. It is part of your collection. When you think of it like that, you’ll want to make your next routine the best you’ve ever made!”
― Torron-Lee Dewar

Title: RiverDance
Medium: Acrylic
Size: 48” x 48”

This painting can be displayed with different views as shown below.

Can you Riverdance?

Dare to Feel,

Red

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