Stuttgart and Hannover

February 22, 2010

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

We travelled after the show on Sunday night to Stuttgart as it was only an hour away, so it meant that we were getting into the hotel just in time to watch the Super Bowl. We get very excited every year watching the Super Bowl because we always have a few Americans on tour with us and this is a big deal to them. So some of the lads organised a board where we could pick squares that were €2 or €5 and put our names on them, and if you were lucky enough that your name was on the square that coincided with the score at the end of every quarter you won money. So there was lots of winners, however the big winners on the night were Tiko and Dane.

But this was only to make the game more enjoyable and exciting to those of us who didn’t really know the rules of the game, the lads however were engrossed in the actual game.

Tuesday the 9th of February was a very important date in the history of Riverdance; it was the official 15th Anniversary of Riverdance The Show. The first show was performed way back in 1995 in The Point Depot which is now known as The 02 in Dublin. The company was presented with t-shirts marking the 15th anniversary so the Irish Dance troupe decided to organise an impromptu celebration night in the bar next door to the hotel and we all decided to wear our t-shirts in honour.

Thursday we travelled to Hannover, with having the night off a few of us ventured into the city by train to get some nice Thai food but the weather was so cold here again that we couldn’t walk around a get a feel for the city, we literally found the Thai Restaurant, ate and got back on the train back to the hotel.

As the Bann Company finished up in Beijing on Thursday night that meant that we were welcoming back some of the old company members who are staying with us for two weeks and then go back to Korea. This also meant that we had to bid a sad farewell to the troupe who had taken their places while away in China, those being, Katie Hands, Gillian Madders, Caitlin Nic Gabhann, Craig Mason and Darren Casey. But we will be seeing them all again in the near future. On the their last day Craig decided to perform for us as he is competing at The All Irelands down in Killarney this week coming, from watching him dance I have no doubt that he will do extremely well. Best of luck Craig we are all routing for you here in the Corrib.

With the group from China having arrived on Friday and the other group going home on Sunday Morning we decided to have a session on the Saturday night when everyone was around, sort of like a welcome back and farewell night. The Riverdance dance musicians provided the music along with Lee, Parker and a few of the lads from the Irish troupe putting on their tap shows and having a trade off. It was a great night and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Well as you can see that was a very busy week for us here in The Corrib, hopefully next will be just as good as we head to Dresden and Frankfurt.

Patricia