Lying south on the bank of the fabulous Yellow River, Zhenzhou proudly took on the capital of the Henan Province in the late 14th Century BC. It is one of the Eight Great Ancient Capital Cities of China. It is as vibrant a city as any Beijing or Shanghai. Despite the cold sub zero temperatures I layered on the thermals and did my usual touristy ramble.
When we are touring at Christmas, we organise what’s known as “Secret Santa”. Our Christmas Night party was spectacular. With a scrumptious feast of turkey and ham and not one, but three different desserts! We revealed our ‘Secret Santa’ identities. Since we are eight hours ahead, we waited until later in the night and many of us retreated to our rooms to make calls to home via Skype. It is difficult particularly at Christmas, being away from home. But with Christmas spirit in bucket loads amongst our cast and crew, we had such a lovely Christmas here in China.
Since my last blog, the Moy Company has been travelling intensely through the Christmas season. We have encountered some culturally engaging moments that I have hopefully captured for you visually.
Firstly I will delve into my experience at Ciqikou in the very large city of Chongqing. This was one of my favorite days of the tour so far. Walking down alleyways and streets with vendors, surrounded by a preserved historical setting. I felt like I was on a movie set depicting Ancient China.
Alana Mallon is one of the lead dancers with Riverdance and has travelled all over the world and performed to audiences of thousands of people. She started dancing at 3-years-old, and within a few months had already won her first of championship. She progressed to win various competitions throughout the UK and Ireland, consistently ranking in … Continued
Severe weather conditions cause the delay of the arrival of the show trucks in Beijing thus cancelling the opening night and rescheduling the show. (In Riverdance”s 17 year history, this show is only the second show to be cancelled in advance. The last time was a fire at the venue in Madrid in 2001.
With the VIP guests assembled in Beijing, the show must go on. Snr Executive producer, Julian Erskine tweets from Beijing “the company entertain the 200 guests with an impromptu show..“
Performing on Christmas Day, we kept the spirits alive. Last minute trickery was being carried out by each of our secret santas.
The excitement grew when our wardrobe department appeared with mandatory tinsel and Santa hats for the finale performance. Our principal performers Callum Spencer and Siobhan Manson reminded me of a very special Mr. and Mrs. Claus sporting their red and white hats!
Dongguan presented an array of choice for the very famous Chinese hotpot. I recently discovered the Chinese translation means ‘fire pot’. It originates back to Mongolia over one thousand years ago and spread to south China during the Tang Dynasty. Featured here is Dan Dorrance impatiently waiting for his pork, beef and chicken to cook in the boiling chili oil! To our ignorance the waiters spoke no English. We were forced to make hideous farm animal impressions to specify our liking. Upon clucking like chicken and using arms as wings the picked up on our meaning. Literally. Chicken Licken on a plate. Head, feet, the works!
The Guangzhou Zhonghshan Memory Hall was a sight to behold, a fabulous exterior and huge inside! With a full cast of experienced dancers and musicians, rehearsals were short and sweet and it was soon warm-up time for our first show of the tour in Guangzhou. With an expected audience of 12,000 people over the weekend, it was no surprise to walk out to a packed theatre. The reception we got was phenomenal and what Julian Erskine (Executive producer) described as “the best I have ever seen in China!”. It certainly was a good way to kick off what promises to be a fascinating and memorable tour.
As this is my first Riverdance blog, a quick introduction seems necessary! At the end of this Chinese tour I will have been with the company for five years! During this time I have been fortunate to work steadily and travel extensively through North and South America, Europe and Asia. If any of you have encountered life on tour you may be familiar with the warped sense of time that is often experienced by those of us on the road. Memories blur together and suddenly five years have flown by. To combat this blurring of time I like to document my life on tour through photography. Whenever I revisit my collection of images from tour I am reminded of all the incredible experiences I have shared with my fellow company members.
By Fiona McCabe, Irish Dance Troupe
I am happy to report so far that our happy crew , dancers and musicians have slipped very nicely into life in south China. We are not quite eating like the locals yet but we shall bide our time. After all ten weeks is a long time. On next week’s agenda: We will be getting into the festive spirit and begin our secret Santa craze. It’s room decorating, mistletoe scented candles and jingle bells ,em, Chinese- style!