National Dance Company of Ireland Hits Big with Their First American Public Television Show, “Rhythm of the Dance!”

World Renowned Troupe Announces 2013/2o14 International Live Performance Tour To Support USA TV Special!

Amazing!  Breathtaking!  Gorgeous!  Inspiring!  Wonderful!  Dazzling Step Dance!  Superb original and classic Irish songs!  Magical and mystical music! 

These are reactions from audiences and critics alike, upon experiencing the exciting and exhilarating sell-out performances of The National Dance Company of Ireland, featuring The Young Irish Tenors, in the resplendent and rousing new stage production, “Rhythm of the Dance!” 

This incredible live show celebrates both the rich history of Ireland as well as the art of Irish dance, from the disciplined tradition of the Celtic Step, to the sensual moves of the Sean Nos dance, rooted solely in the ancient island of Innishbofin near Galway.  “Rhythm of the Dance” has heralded a new era in Irish entertainment, featuring thirty dancers, a traditional live full Irish band, and the dashing and handsome Young Irish Tenors.  Internationally rated as one of the most popular and successful Irish Step Dance shows on tour, critics, audiences, and millions of fans around the world, have hailed the live stage show as a must see!

The amazing cast of dancers, musicians, and singers, are a touring carnival of working class talents, performing their crafts since they were children.  Representing todays 21st Century Irish lad and lassie, their tour with “Rhythm of the Dance” is a dream come true; performing for millions of fans, stomping out the beats of a thousand years in Gaelic history.  And with each generation, comes a new glimmer of hope that one day Ireland will stand united.

A history that has become a well-chronicled story - a country reared on hardship, famine, oppression, and the misty gloom of struggle.  But today’s Ireland has a lively buzz about it.  In the midst of hardship, something wonderful has happened.  A sense of regaining something lost.  Restaurants are packed again.  Pubs overflow onto the streets.  Gaelic appears on every road sign.  And music is once more in the air.  The Irish have risen up, dusted themselves off, and have come back home to themselves.   And with each new generation, comes a new glimmer of hope.  Hope that one day, Ireland shall stand united, and peace shall reign forever over the land.

“Rhythm of the Dance” celebrates this renewed vigor in Irish culture, embracing the traditional and the current, by presenting dance, song, and musical performances like no other Irish dance show.  Though “Lord of the Dance” and “Riverdance” are two very successful, big-budget international stage tours featuring Irish Step Dance, they both have a pop sensibility popular with American audiences: elaborate sets, inclusion of modern dance segments, and flashy stage gear – a bit Elvis, a touch of Liberace, and little matador.  The popular “Celtic Woman” and “Celtic Thunder” tours, both convey a different sense of the Irish experience, with formal gowns and tuxedoed singers, a huge orchestra, and expensive, gorgeously-staged productions.  However, all of these iconic shows set a precedent, opening the door to a worldwide interest in Irish dance and music.

But The National Dance Company of Ireland’s performers are not only an assemblage of beautiful Irish lassies, and handsome Irish lads, sporting colorful Celtic-themed costumes, tapping and stomping out century-old beats - they are also a special collection of incredible young Irish dancers, singers, and musicians.  A crowd favorite, one of the company dancers, a star in her own write, specializes in the ancient Sean Nos Dance style.  And along with powerful and moving songs of celebration and hope, performed by The Young Irish Tenors (soon to have their own American Public Television special), all the music in the live show, as well as in the special, is performed live on stage by the “Rhythm of the Dance” musicians, who play on rare and haunting musical instruments throughout the show, like the Celtic Bouzouki, the Cittern, the Octave mandolin, the melodeon (Irish accordion), Tea whistle and Pennywhistle flutes, century-old harps, banjos, fiddles, guitars and various hand drums.

The 2013 tour supporting the company’s hit television show in America, which premiered on St. Patrick’s Day, was a smashing success, with sold-out venues from the West to the East Coasts.  The tour resumes in August, and stops in every major American marketplace, from New York to LA, hitting every key city that ties into the PBS broadcast of their 2013 TV special.  And plans are already underway for the 2014 live stage tour, to introduce a multi-media element to the live stage proceedings, to more closely tie into the theme of the television show.

To date, The National Dance Company, along with The Young Irish Tenors, have performed “Rhythm of the Dance” to standing ovations in front of over 4.8 million people in 59 countries! 

The American Television Special!

Spectacular!  Stirring!  Sweeping!  Stunning!  Sensational!

These are words television viewers, critics, and Public Television Affiliates alike, are expressing after recently viewing the new 2013 television pledge special, “Rhythm of the Dance” – now airing exclusively on Public Television in the United States. 

Taking over two years to film and produce the ambitious project, Winmill Films, a California-based production company, travelled far and wide throughout the Emerald Isle, capturing live dance performances at rarely seen locales and historic sights.  Shooting at over thirty-eight scenic locations, this stunning television special premiered on St. Patrick’s Day in dozens of major cities as a two-hour prime time Pledge Special for Public Television.  Additional multi-camera video production also captured the live energy of the international stage show, at the Theater de Tamboer in Amsterdam!  Both the locations and stage footage were combined and woven into a mesmerizing visual one-hour show.

“Rhythm of the Dance” is a unique dance show presented to American audiences, in a new, ground-breaking way, to fully experience and enjoy the essence of Irish dance and its origins.  Because the stage production theme is based on historic tales, and the dance choreographed by the brilliant, Doireann Carney, and is faithful to the geographical cultural roots of each dance, the TV special educates the viewer, while entertaining them with stunning visuals of spectacular locations that are part of the story behind the dance.  Essentially, the live show has been re-imagined, creating a live dance and music performance with seamless visual transitions from stage to exotic Eire locations, from castle ruins dating to 500 AD, to the Irish seawall on remote Innishbofin isle, to the Lost City of Clonmacnoise, St. Patrick’s Rock of Cashel, the scenic Village of Enniskerry, to St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, to Kylemore Abbey, to Cromwell’s Barracks perched on the edge of a sea cliff, and numerous other ancient ruins dating to 650 BC.

The power of dance and music will bring viewers on a fascinating journey into Ireland, seamlessly inserting throughout the show, panoramic locations and exterior segments that tie into the actual dance on stage and its historical content.  This can be seen in wonderful segments, like transitioning from a peasant lass sweeping up outside her seaside cottage, to the live stage where she seamlessly continues the number, but now surrounded by a dozen broom-wielding lads.  Or the lovely lass who skips through the Village of Kinvara, enters a pub, and exits out on stage from the village to the live theater.

The television special Director and Co-Writer, award-winning Hollywood film and video helmer, Chip Miller, describes the results as “…a way to help interpret the meaning of each dance, as well as awe the television viewer with stunning and staggering visuals, worthy of IMAX.”

This unique television event, stars lead dancers Michael Byrne, Nicola Kennedy, and Emma O’Sullivan, along with The Young Irish Tenors – Paul Gough, Rory Musgrave, and Duncan Brickenden.  Other dancers featured in the special, are Conor Smyth, Fiona Stone, Leslie McDonough, and Sean Regan, and musicians Sean Hagan, Aine O’Malley, Kelly Fitzhenry, Christopher Anglim, and Louise Ryan.  All brave performers who withstood rain, sleet, freezing cold temperatures, powerful winds, and fog - for the sake of art and entertainment.

The National Dance Company of Ireland’s fabulous tour support and worldwide audience base (America, Scandinavia, China, Greece, Romania, Amsterdam, and Russia, to name a few, is sure to be a precedent-setting pledge special for Public Television in the United States.

This EMMY worthy special, was produced by director Miller and Kieran Cavanaugh, President of the “Rhythm of the Dance” company, and was Produced for Public Television and Co-Written by legendary Television Producer, Terrel Cass.  The production company is Desert C.A.M. Studios/Winmill Films LLC.