St. Patrick’s Day on Tour..

March 19, 2015

Awh St Patrick’s day! A day when everyone becomes Irish and cities across the world are lit up green. It’s crazy to think that our tiny little island has such a major influence across the globe. St Patrick’s day for a dancer, no matter how experienced or inexperienced will no doubt be their busiest day of the year. Dancing at multiple gigs in their town or having something to do in the local parade to name but a few are important jobs for Irish dancers and musicians on St. Patrick’s day. Everyone loves the “craic agus ceol”  and gets up and tries out a step themselves. Riverdance even preformed at the parade in Tokyo! Where they had a an amazing time!

This week I asked around some of the troupe to see what their St Patrick’s day was like growing up before they left for tour. It’s funny how they are so alike.

Myself I spent most of my St Patrick’s days dancing in town. Weather it be a display on the street or in a Local museum or pub . I remember one St Patrick’s day having to walk in the parade. I must have been about 10 I would say. This was a big deal and I had never been in the parade before. Only thing was Ireland being Ireland in March it was FREEZING. We all got ready in our dresses and wigs and gathered at the starting point. We walked from start to finish with out pasty white legs on show and wigs blowing in the wind. I think we may have gone on to dance at another outdoor events and then on to another one after that doing our same little display. It was great fun!

I also vividly remember when  I was a little older this time having to dance in our shopping centre. This was (and still is) the place to hang out if you have nowhere else to go and you like to stroll around the shops or chat with friends. The stage was set up right in the centre and everyone in town was in the shopping centre! I couldn’t believe that literally everyone in town had walked through the shopping centre that evening. We were there for a few hours and we were glad to get a rest after all our dancing!

For us Irish we kind of know what to expect now in Ireland on “Paddys day” so I asked around some others especially the ones from America and Australia about what they got up too on St. Patrick’s day!

Julia Gats from Seattle, USA always looked forward to St. Paddy’s Day as a kid because it meant “I got to skip school and go from show to show dancing all day. My favourite was always performing downtown at the Seattle centre because it was our biggest show and we looked forward to it all year.

Natasia Petracic from Sydney Australia had this to say.. “Growing up I would spend St Patrick’s day performing for gigs at local irish pubs and parades. There is a massive Irish population especially in Sydney. My favorite St Patrick’s day memory was performing on Good Morning America last year in Times Square with Heartbeat of Home”

We hope everyone had a great St Patrick’s day! We sure did by wearing whatever green or Irish colours we had with us and playing some Irish tunes at the hotel.

 

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