China:- It’s not goodbye but see you soon.

February 14, 2017

From the timid “hellos” and “nice to meet you” in Harbin, just under ten weeks ago, to sun-gazing in the beautiful city of dreams that is Macau, the Barrow Company are to say our “goodbyes” for now at least.

It was a tour to remember for all of us. For an experienced touring dancer like myself, it was special to watch the latest flock of talent. Some new dancers came through the summer school, others were successful auditionees. All entered into this epic phenomenon and grew into themselves as people, performers and friends.

There are the flip sides to that. For some Riverdancers, the end of a tour also spells the end of a career. Life paths change and valued members move on. It is with a sad heart we say goodbye and thank you for your service to Resident Dance Captain and all round tour Dad, Brendan Dorris. Excuse me while I wipe the tears off the screen.

Forever in our hearts!

Yes tour life can be up and down and it can be stressful. You can get home sick. You can have days where you just don’t feel like the dancer you want to be or what-have-you. But it has its undeniable special features and this company was no different. More than a dozen new faces (cast and crew) passed through the door in the first WEEK! They were brand new to this world and now look at them… all leaving as close friends . It is so nice to see. True friends for life were bonded and sealed on this tour.

Pros and cons aside there few jobs in the world that require 52 immensely complex characters to tour the world’s largest nation. Allow them to scale the Great Wall, let them live life to the max in Shanghai, soak in the sun in Macau and all the rest of the things we did on this tour and be able to say it’s all because at an early childhood age they started learning their “1,2,3’s”.

Thanks to everyone who kept the ball rolling on this tour. Thank you those who kept up to date with us on the road, it’s been my pleasure keeping you posted.

There are too many nice quotes and sayings from this tour to sum it up, but in honour of our departing Brendan I’ll leave you with this: “I would rather do nothing with you, than everything without you”.

We’ve been the Barrow Company in China,

Thank you,

Darren.

Special thanks to Xander Cross for the amazing footage in our Barrow video!