Riverdance’s week in Southampton

May 16, 2010

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

Well after a very hectic week in London we were happy to get to Southampton so that we all could catch up on our sleep. When we arrived on Sunday, we all headed to bed for a couple of hours and once we had caught up on our sleep we ventured out to get food and some people went to the cinema to relax.

Southampton is a lovely city as its situated on the water and is widely known for its cruise’s. Almost everyday we saw different cruise ships pull into the harbour.

The sun was shinning, so we wandered around the city and explored the old town which is surrounded by the old city walls, almost half of which are still standing. Below is a picture of the Bargate which marks the spot where the pedestrian high street becomes the traffic bearing street – Above Bar. There are some amazing sights to be seen in the old town.

Aoife McDarby and Damian Doherty, two of the Riverdancers were leaving the tour early to go home and study for their TCRG exam. We all went out on the Thursday night to say farewell, and weren’t we happy that we did because who did we bump into only the legendary Jimmy White – Snooker player. He is a lovely man. I must say he was very patient as we all had our pictures taken with him. Below in the picture is Orla Griffen, Jimmy White, Niamh Eustace and Niamh’s mother Marian Eustace and friend Annemarie who were over visiting Niamh for a few days.

This week was also another busy week for the Riverdance workshops, where members of the Riverdance troupe coach local Irish dancers and Irish Dance schools in Irish Dancing, as the tour travels troughout the UK.
Anthony, Chris, Laura and Donna undertook a workshop with a large group of dancers from a local Southampton Irish Dance school. They said they had a great time and were delighted as the school performed one of their routines for them at the end of the workshop.

Until next week
Bye Patricia