Riverdance in Manchester, NH and Wallingford, CT

March 16, 2010

Laura Yanez, Soloist, Boyne Company

Hi again, Riverdance fans! This past Monday we had a long bus journey to Manchester, New Hampshire. We found ourselves in sunny, almost spring weather when we arrived, which made the drive well worth it for me! Everyone took the evening to relax and unwind and on Tuesday, we headed to the Verizon Arena for a one-night performance.

This is the first one night engagement I’ve done with Riverdance, and it seemed odd to meet dressers, crew and unpack all of show gear just to pack it all up again at the end of the night…sort of a whirl wind! Our one night was quite the event for family and friends of Irish Dancer John Grimes. He had dozens of fans in the audience wearing bright green glow necklaces as they cheered us all on…it was hard to miss! John even brought in boxes of moon pies from a local bakery that had us fueled throughout the show. Thanks John!

On Wednesday, we were off to Wallingford, Connecticut. It was a pretty long travel day, but we had another evening to relax…two evenings off in a week is something to appreciate while on tour! We happened to be a few towns over from Irish Dancer Meghan Lucey’s home, so a few of us piled in her car and headed over for a delicious home-cooked meal and a belated family birthday celebration for her 21st. Her parents even had a birthday piñata hanging outside, much to her embarrassment and our delight!

While in shows at the Chevrolet Theatre, Dance Director Breándan de Gallaí flew out to begin rehearsals for the following week in Radio City! For our shows there, we will be adding several Irish dancers as well as musicians to our company. I can’t wait to see how our show looks on that beautiful, legendary stage. American Tapper Jason Bernard also celebrated his birthday this week, and his parents were able to drive down to celebrate with him.

As we travel on to New York City Monday, we say goodbye to deputies John Grimes and Mark O’Loughlin and hello again to our Far East travelers Kevin Horton, Niamh O’Connor and Padraic Moyles. Kevin’s return to the Boyne Company marks this as my last Riverdance diary. It has been a great pleasure to document our eventful tour for you all, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I have enjoyed retelling it! Hope to see you as we travel on around the country and best wishes!

Laura