Riverdance in its 20th anniversary year

December 2, 2014

To mark the 20^th anniversary since the debut of Riverdance at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 the show’s producers  celebrated this landmark  with changes to the show, not only adding a brand new number but also having the show’s lighting and costumes re-designed to enhance the experience for audiences old and new.

For the first time in nearly 14 years, a new number was created for the show. This number, called Anna Livia (after James Joyce’s personification of Dublin’s River Liffey) is an A cappella number for the female Irish dancers with rhythms and additional text by Bill Whelan and choreography by John Carey. The number opens with a verse from Finnegans Wake set to music by Bill Whelan and is a tribute to the river that flows through the city where Riverdance was born and of course originally gave us the name for the show! Anna Livia is also a tribute to the strength and grace of the female Irish dancers led by the female principal dancer.

Triple Emmy winning designer Joan Bergin has created some beautiful new costumes for several numbers in the show including of course, brand new designs for Anna Livia. Irish lighting designer John Comiskey has created lavish new lighting designs for the whole show, including the installation of a state of the art LED projection screen to further enhance the original projections painted by celebrated artist Robert Ballagh

Riverdance in its 20^th year is  fresh and reinvigorated and we are sure you will not only enjoy the familiar, but you will also be enchanted and entertained by the additions as we tour the world in this auspicious year.