Chinese strains in river of Irish music
Riverdance will wrap up its 2010 China tour with seven shows in the capital next month. The week-long performances coincide with China's Spring Festival holiday and also celebrate the 15th anniversary of the acclaimed production that premiered at the Point Theater in Dublin in February 1995. For the first time, the Irish dance show will include two pieces of Chinese music.
On April 30, 1994, Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, two Irish dance champions, performed a 7-minute tap dance at the Eurovision Song Contest, a TV talent show similar to American Idol. Their performance brought to the stage an energy and sensuality never before seen in Irish dance.
A year later, on Feb 9, the full-length Riverdance went on stage at the Point Theater, Dublin, for a sell-out 5-week run. Ever since, the show featuring traditional Irish tap dancing, folk music, ancient Celtic mythology and Irish history has been staged across theaters and arenas all over the world.
Its China debut at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in 2004 won a standing ovation. Four years later, it returned to the capital before the Beijing Olympic Games for another five, sell-out shows at the National Center for the Performing Arts.
"Of all the performances from Ireland, in rock, music, theater and film, nothing has the energy, the sensuality and the spectacle of Riverdance," says Zhang Ligang, director of Beijing Beizhan Performing Arts Co Ltd, who was involved in bringing Riverdance to Beijing in 2004 and is in charge of its on-going, third China tour.
This time, Riverdance visits some 13 cities, offering a special treat for Chinese audiences. Before the tour, the company sourced Chinese music online, including chinadaily.com. Based on online votes, the performance will have the popular Chinese folk song Love Song of Kangding at the end of the first half and My Motherland in the final scene.
"The two pieces of music fit the show well. Chinese audiences will not know how wonderfully the music matches the Irish dance until they watch it," says composer Bill Whelan, who has rearranged the Chinese pieces.
"Riverdance originates from Irish music and dance but in the past 15 years it has naturally developed into a production combining a variety of genres, from Flamenco, rock, and American tap dance, to jazz and African percussion. All of them work in great harmony and this time we blend them with something Chinese. The Chinese melody played on Irish flutes sounds terrific," says the 59-year-old Irish composer who created the original 7-minute music in 1994 and later worked on the full-length Riverdance.
The composer once worked with Chinese flutist Zhang Weiliang and the 12-Girls' Band. He has just finished recording an album with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
"Riverdance is like a big river which carries and sustains energy, inspiration and tradition from all the sources. This time we are using a few minutes of two Chinese songs but it's not long enough.
"We invited Tan Dun (known for his score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero) to our performance in Shanghai early this month and discussed with him about creating longer original Chinese music and even blending Chinese dances and other arts forms into the show," he says.
Tan Dun sounded interested in the suggestion and told China Daily, "Whelan and I are neighbors in New York and wish to be neighbors in Shanghai. He loves Chinese arts and sometimes I feel he is very Chinese. Maybe our personal friendship and the ideas we share in music can turn into a good collaboration one day."
The show at Beijing Beizhan Theater on Feb 9, the same day of the show's 15th anniversary, will be recorded and made into DVDs. There have been previous DVD productions of the show - Riverdance - The New Show (1996) recorded in Radio City New York which marked the company's American debut, and Riverdance - Live from Geneva (2002).