For me Riverdance is Michael Flatley and Michael Flatley is Riverdance. because the way we know Riverdance up zil zoday is due to Michael Flatley. I love his shows he did after this.
*'Heartland'* is the absolute standout track for me. Those spotlights....that big thumping beat....the ascending strings.....Jean & Colin dancing....and the final huge dance spectacular with all of the Irish dancers. Brilliantly dancing...flicking heads...shuffling feet...and all the rest! *WOW! It doesn't get much better than this!*
I also grew up on this VHS (which I still own) and I definitely remember the harlem tappers. However I think they were just on the original broadcast and not on the VHS I own, not sure why they're not. Definitely a fun sequence
I remember me and my grandpa watching this as a kid and i loved it i watch it to remember my grandpa hope everyone has a great day has a great day or night
Of All versions this is the one that I preferred and also I like to call it my "Safe Place". First of all because is more balanced and the dancers were told to exagerate their movements so that the performance could be delivered for the people that were at the very top of the Radio City Music Hall seats. The additional choreography that Colin Dunne, Jean Butler, Mavis Ascott, María Pagés, The Moscow Folk Ballet and Tarik Winston made is the current escence of the Show along with Michael Flatley's original pieces. 1995 version at The Point was good also but Radio City Music Hall is the Best because it allowed for all the dancers, musicians and singers to Shine instead of focusing only in the Leads. This is want I want to see from Riverdance, although the current versions of the show are good they have shortened the crew and are starting to rely more on recordings and screen animated stagings that look great but made the people to focus less on the dance and the performers, same thing happened to Lord of the Dance and I believe that's why they are deciding to go back to the Feet of Flames format which in my opinion is 100 % better than the LOTD Point Theater version. I had this DVD signed by María Pagés, I met her with her own Flamenco company in 2006, unfortunaly a friend of mine lost the DVD a week after I gave it to him to watch it. You did an amazing work by uploading this remastered version. Thank you so much.
Colin, Michael's replacement, may have had impressive qualifications but he ISN'T/WASN'T Michael. Maybe if he lost the facial hair? I'm just sayin'. Yes, the show has continued with popularity for 30 years, but no one is still either Jean and/or Michael.
I literally just saw it now that at 36:05, one of the women messes up the rotations, lol. I had this VHS as a little kid and I never noticed that mess-up until now! (She even is smiling while facing the wrong way with her hand up like she's going, "Huh?")
This version definitely feels more balanced than the original performance. It's fascinating to watch these back to back plus the documentary... it seems like, as amazing a dancer as he is, Michael Flatley was a bit of a narcissist, much of the original performance was his show whereas this show is about the whole troupe. Jean Butler seems more confident and powerful in this performance, and I like that both of them are up on stage when the curtain rises on the troupe at 1:25:58, whereas in the original it was just Flatley. I think really, what I love most about the 1995 version is the quality of the sound, the tapping in this version doesn't have as much of the lower frequency sound? The taps seem so high pitched and I can't really hear any of the stomps :(
