By BRUCE DENNILL
Lord Of The Dance: A Lifetime Of Standing Ovations / Directed by Michael Flatley / SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria
Michael Flatley has built an enduring dance and entertainment empire on not only his sublime skills as a dancer but also on his charisma, which he is not shy of flaunting where it helps place his own work or shows he has conceptualised in the spotlight. The second part of this production’s title shows he’s lost none of his focus on branding, with the live dancing on stage supplemented by video footage of Flatley as The Lord in productions over the course of the last 30 years and the slogans that have defined his drive (like, “Nothing is impossible … follow your dreams!”) echoing through the arena.
While that somewhat dilutes the focus on the dancers unpacking the story of the Lord of the Dance, it does underline the piece’s cultural significance – introducing Irish dancing to and popularising the art form with a worldwide audience and spawning spin-offs, copycats and a million memes. And as much as it feels, in parts, a bit heavy-handed, all of this native marketing does have the effect of reminding audience members who have seen the show (or it’s precursor, Riverdance) just how hard-hitting it was when it burst onto the scene in the Nineties. And it build expectations brilliantly for newcomers as the lights dip for the arrival of the cast of this updated production.
As ever, the narrative around which the dancing is structured is pretty shaky: a small, sprite-like creature, the Little Spirit has a dream in which the Lord of the Dance is the good guy, Don Dorcha (or the Dark Lord) is the bad guy, Saoirse is the Lord of the Dance’s true love and Morrighan the Temptress is the meddling hussy (a bit of a spoiler in the name there) and everyone dances to either show aspects of their characters or in opposition to each other, to show their respective areas of strength. The dance sequences are broken up by periods of fiddling (the instruments, not the dodgy behaviour) and song interludes featuring vocalist Celyn Cartwright. These add variety to the unfolding action but also give the dancers gaps to regain their breath.
That’s an important aspect of the piece, as what impresses perhaps more than anything in Lord of the Dance is the astonishing athleticism of the dancers, coupled with the precision with which they match their steps with their colleagues next to, behind or across from them. As Macaulay Salwood, the Lord in the performance under review, explained: the company has a ‘line-up’ some three hours before every performance (which runs just over two hours) in order to refresh and perfect their positioning and spatial awareness – and all of this before every performance, even on two-show days. This is a herculean physical task – and an enlightening insight into how each new Lord of the Dance company can be as tight and united as the previous one.
Salwood is superb in the title role, magnetic without being arrogant and phenomenal in the ferocity of his foot speed during his solos. Opposite him, the shorter, brawnier Zoltan Papp, helped by commando-style face paint and a helmet, effectively brings menace to his role as the villain, and whenever the two men face off with duelling solos, the effect is powerfully electric.
Kaitlyn O Halloran Murphy gives both willowy grace and edgy allure to Saoirse and petite Erin Learmont, clad all in red, makes Morrighan a compelling distraction to the Lord of the Dance’s quest to restore peace to this dream world.
Many of the ensemble dance pieces involve the distinctive Irish dancing movements – high kicks, flicks of the lower halves of the dancers’ legs, arms being kept strictly alongside torsos and the rese – without the hard shoes that create the percussive tapping for which the production is most famous. These segments are beautiful and arguably more lyrical than those dances featuring the hard shoes, but it is the latter moments that punch hardest, with audience members mutely shaking their heads as they wonder at the company’s ability to keep complex choreography in strict syncopation while still maintaining exact positions on the stage and acting out roles or engaging directly with the audience with broad smiles and upbeat energy. It looks and feels like all the dancers are part of a single organism and, however many times you’ve seen this show or its earlier or associated versions, it never gets less thrilling.
Striking backdrops and a plethora of dramatic costumes round out the sensory offering, which overwhelms the shortfalls in script-based storytelling. If you’ve seen the show before, go again. If you haven’t, make sure you get there while it’s on stage nearby.