I can not believe that our five weeks in Toronto is finished. We have had such an amazing stay here. Since most of our time here was fast paced, the last week and and a half was spent relaxing and finishing all of the things we had left to the last minute!
Louise takes us through a typical Riverdance Flying Squad gig! This time we visit Martha’s Vineyard.
Padraic’d best Riverdance moment was performing the principal role for the first time. “I never told my mum I was an understudy so she flew out to me for my first time not knowing I would be lead. It was pretty cool.”
We made it, our fifth split week in a row before heading to Toronto for our five-week run. This week brought us to the small town of Paducah, Kentucky, with a three-day stay to the larger city of Cincinnati, Ohio at the weekend.
Well, our forth split week brought us to Cedar Falls, Iowa and then a travel show Friday to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was quite excited to get to Cedar Falls due to the fact that we were staying in a casino for the 4 days, which was called The Isle Casino at Waterloo, Iowa.
Doing 8 shows a week is hard on our legs, and even harder was this week with 11 shows in a row before a day off. With this many performances it is imperative that we take care of our legs, so our Physiotherapist keeps buckets of ice side stage for us to soak in. This helps take the pressure off of our feet and shins. A soak a day keeps the doc away!
Rockford was a quieter town and most of the time was spent lounging around the hotel and taking advantage of the hotel pool and gym.
Born in Dublin, Julian has worked in the entertainment industry for over 30 years. He started in his career in stage management and after several years as a Lighting Designer and Production Manager in 1980 he set up Ireland’s first professional scenery construction company supplying the theatre, TV, advertising, and film industries in Ireland. In 1989 he returned full-time to theatre as a producer and, in 1994, he joined the fledgling Riverdance team on a consultancy basis. A year later he was appointed Executive Producer and since then he has looked after all the Riverdance companies around the world.
In 1994, Breandan de Gallai joined Michael Flatley and Jean Butler in the Dublin production of Riverdance. He was appointed Dance Captain when Riverdance began its first run of performances in Dublin that same year.
This week is the first of five split weeks we have in a row, meaning two cities a week. A rather hectic schedule like this doesn’t leave much time for sightseeing, but we were fortunate to have the afternoons free to roam the campus of the University, visit the bookstore to buy t-shirts and other memorabilia, and check out the local town.