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So
far we have two interviews with troupe members of the terrific new Irish dance
show Dance of Desire, thanks to Ann
Keller. This is our feature on Angela Burns,
and to read the one on Lisa Anderson, click
here. For a previous interview with Ella
Haluk and Alan Whelan,
click here. Click
on the following for our other coverage of the show: Main
focus, with review Interview
with Eric Cunningham Troupe
page, with photos • • • Angela
Burns Interview Where did you grow up? In
Scotland, in Kilmarnock.
And do you have Irish connections?
My
grandfather is half Irish.
How old were you when you started
dancing?
I was almost four. I had even taken a few classes when
I was three.
How did you come to do Irish dancing
instead of Scottish dancing? Or did you do both?
No; my Mum always
wanted to do Irish dancing when she was younger, but couldn’t get to the
classes. And then we were on holiday at my cousin’s, and she danced in Liverpool;
and my sister Pamela picked it up very very well. So my Mum found a class then
in Scotland, which was James and Noreen McCutcheon’s Setanta School, and
that was it. It just progressed from there.
Did you always
do a lot of competition, or did you think past competition to go on stage?
I’d
always done a lot of acting in school, a lot of drama, although dancing took up
most of the time. But especially in our school, it was very into teamwork, and
when the shows came up I wanted to do more. Competitively I was more a team dancer
– I won many World titles with the dancing school, and with solos I won various
titles too.
Have you brothers or sisters who dance as well?
Yes,
I’ve two other sisters that dance, one of whom was in Lord of the Dance --
Pamela Burns. She trained with Troupe 2 but went into Troupe 1 from the Australian
tour. That was her first tour, and she just left nine months ago because she just
had a little girl, about two weeks ago, Katy.
Do you think
she’ll go back to dancing at all?
Yes, she’s hopefully
going to do her Teachers’ [exam], and then she’ll have a school if she
can – oh no, she’ll not leave it! It’s part of the way you’ve
been brought up – our holidays were going to the World Championships, even
though it was Easter-time. We then had our holiday after that, because there was
a younger child and an older child, so we stayed for the whole week; and that
was our holiday every year.
So is Dance of Desire your first
big show?
No, I was in Feet of Flames in Hyde Park when I was
fifteen! It was unbelievable! Because I was only fifteen, I was just one of the
extras for “Planet Ireland”, but it was incredible.
Were
you way up on the upper level of the stage?
Well I had been way
up high, then I was moved down to the first riser; so I was up there and the view
was absolutely fantastic! You could see everybody from there, and the atmosphere
was just terrific. And then I was in Dancing on Dangerous Ground.
I loved that show because I got to express a lot of drama as well – we used
a lot of drama, which was good, but unfortunately that went. Then I’d been
asked to go to To Dance on the Moon for quite a while, so I was in To Dance on
the Moon which was great fun, going to Germany and Australia. When
the show came home, I stayed in Australia and did some promotional work. Then
I came home and studied advertising and PR, and then I came to this show. I’m
doing some marketing for the show as well, and getting back to my dancing, getting
back on stage – because I was out of it for about two years, and you do miss
it, you just want to get up and perform. So when it was a new show, I heard the
storyline and things first, then decided to come, and did what I‘d been studying
as well!
Were you just in Feet of Flames in
Hyde Park, you didn’t go on to other Lord of the Dance shows?
No,
I didn’t do anything else; I had to go back to school.
I
bet you wished you could though!
(laughing) Oh, definitely! A
lot of them at that time went to Vegas, but I didn’t make it there because
obviously I was too young. But I went to New York for Dangerous Ground, and Riverdance
was there, and a good few of my friends came from Vegas, and then at the Worlds
I got to see a lot of them. It was good!
And
what other interests do you have away from the stage?
I love
socialising! I’m a people person, and I love mixing with all different kinds
of people.
Being in shows seems to be a very sociable life?
Great for making friends?
Yes, definitely! There are people I’ve
not seen for years – met at the Worlds, even longer, and you just meet back
up; and because you’ve had an atmosphere where you went out with kind of
a family, you’ve grown all together. Meeting up five years later, it’s
like meeting them from yesterday.
How to you keep fit?
When
I’m off I do go to the gym. I like yoga and Pilates, but then again, during
the shows I get enough just warming up, because you don’t want to be wearing
yourself out doing a really hard workout. If we are working out yoga and Pilates
are good, because they’re for toning up, and for breathing, which is really
good for stage.
And what about your ambitions for the future?
I
will stay with Dance of Desire for a while, and hopefully see that progress; and
hopefully do more marketing and advertising, that side of things, and see what
happens. I’d love to live in Australia, at the end of the day. It’s
just very relaxed, very friendly.
Less stressful?
Yes.
Even just going down to the beach. And it’s lovely to bring your children
up there, I think, because they can go down and go surfing, play on the beach,
and it’s not costing anything. Whereas here, it’s, ‘Oh well, I
have to go swimming, I have to do this, I have to . . .’ and it’s always
money, money. It’s nice for them to enjoy the natural life.
Interview and Photos:
Ann Keller
Editing: Louise
Owen
Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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