Riverdance in Amarillo and El Paso

February 17, 2010

Laura Yanez, Soloist, Boyne Company

Hello All! This Monday, we had a short bus journey to Amarillo, Texas for the first three shows of the week. The Amarillo Civic Center was attached to an ice hockey rink, so we were very cold at work the first few days! In fact, after being in California for a couple of months, being in Amarillo was a very cold awakening to the winter! Deputy Scott Doherty was filling in for Nick Yenson during this time, and his flight back to the east coast was cancelled due to snowstorms. He didn’t seem too disappointed to spend some more time with the company though!

On Thursday, we were up at six in the morning for a full day bus journey to El Paso, Texas. Most of us slept for most of the trip, but we had a lunch break in Roswell, New Mexico for lunch. Everyone enjoyed the kitschy, alien-inspired downtown area of the city. The rest of the bus trip was quite beautiful, passing through gorgeous scenic areas such as Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

In El Paso, we stayed at the historic Camino Real Hotel. This El Paso landmark opened in 1912, and apparently was a popular place to watch the Mexican Revolution progress. From my room, I could easily see what seemed like miles of Juarez, Mexico…and walking around El Paso didn’t seem to different from being there!

With a certain holiday approaching, the ladies of the company decided to have a girl’s night out to see the movie “Valentine’s Day”. Thursday night we all gathered for a relaxing meal at Macaroni Grill and headed over to the cinema. It was a great night and I hope we have a few more like it!

The end of this week was full of hellos and goodbyes. We said goodbye to dancers Aisling McVeigh, Billy Kanaly and John Grimes and welcomed back Christina Havlin, Niamh O’Connor, Padraic Moyles and Kevin Horton. All our dancers who were away Riverdancing in China are back for a few weeks before they fly to Korea. Even though its only been a few months, it seems like forever since they’ve been here. It was so nice to see them back in the show! We also welcomed back tapper Kelly Isaac and said goodbye to Sean Scott.

On Valentine’s Day, we had two shows for all the happy couples of El Paso. As I headed to the second show, I noticed a huge line outside of the theatre and first thought that perhaps there was a surplus of audience hopefuls, but when I walked to the stage door and saw the whole company outside (and a firetruck), I realized a fire alarm had gone off. The dancers even had rotations outside!

Of course, it was a false alarm and the show went on for a very happy audience. Although almost everyone in our company was away from their loved ones on the day, everyone had a nice Valentine’s together. On Monday as we travel to Lubbock, Texas, all the girls have to try and travel on the bus with their beautiful bouquets of flowers! Hopefully it will make travel day smell nice! See you then,

Laura