Interview with Richard Griffin, choreographer:
Q: How did you first become involved with Gaelforce Dance?
Richard: The very first time I ever heard of Gaelforce, I got a phone call from Charmaine Chase, a dance teacher in Australia, who was choreographing the show. She was looking for two lead dancers from Ireland or the UK, and if I knew of anybody could I let them know? My eldest son was in Lord of the Dance at the time, and he knew of two dancers that had left recently – James Devine and Paul Noonan – and I contacted James and told him to get in touch, there was this gig in Australia. I knew nothing about the show, I knew nothing about Michael Durkan [producer]; I didn't know anything about it except I knew Charmaine, and she said it was a good show.
Anyway, the two lads ended up travelling over, and I didn't hear any more. Then about a year and half later, Michael phoned me. The show had been touring in Australia and New Zealand, and they now wanted to embark on a world tour, and he asked would I come and re-choreograph the show, which I did, in 1999.
Q: You were running your own dance school full-time in the UK at that time.
Richard: I was, yes. Michael said he was planning to have a month of rehearsals, and I had no idea, at the time, how long or how much I would have to do. But I was glad to have the opportunity. So I flew off to Sydney in February 1999, and we worked so hard, in the heat (because that's their summer) in the Betty Pounder Studio in Sydney, and we worked morning, noon and night basically, to put this show together for our opening night.
Our opening night was in Nevada [USA], in a town called Lofflan – it's about an hour south of Las Vegas. It's like a mini Las Vegas strip. We opened there a month later, and basically I had re-choreographed the whole show. James Devine had been the interim choreographer for the stuff they were doing in Australia, but although the music stayed pretty much the same we changed all of the choreography of every number, and produced a stronger storyline and put more acting into it. And once it started on tour I went back to my dance school and I just came out for the odd week here and there.
Then they were getting so many bookings that Michael asked me would I consider going on tour, and stay on tour with them. So I seriously considered all my options and decided I would try that, even though I would obviously lose some students. It was an opportunity I couldn't resist! So for three years, basically, I went round the world – and changed the show dramatically. We had dancers coming and going – James Devine left the show – and we brought other people in to do the leads, and it was work in progress for the three years.
Q: Does it inevitably change every time the lead dancers change? Do the new people bring different character to the roles?
Richard: Yes. The beauty of this particular show is that the ethic of the show is the actual tap part is completely live. Therefore, it's not restricted to a pre-recorded dance track, which of course would mean you couldn't change the choreography. This way, you can change it from dancer to dancer. If you've got a different lead dancer you can highlight their strengths, do the things they're best at. Plus the dancers get bored if they're doing the same thing every night, year in, year out. So they never got an opportunity to get bored because I love changing things, and I'd look at it every night and go “we can improve that, we can improve that!”
By the time I finished it was 2003 – I was in Hong Kong, and I'd had three years on the road, and living out of a suitcase had started to lose its charm – so I went home and reopened the dance school, and it's been very successful, and it's building. I've started a brand-new class with little children all over again, and I loved it.
And then, out of the blue, Michael said, “It's coming back!’ They only did one tour after I retired, and it's such a shame because it's such a good show. I would have been quite happy to just keep coming out and doing their rehearsals and stuff like that, but it just didn't tour for whatever reason.
But now it's back and I couldn't be more thrilled, but I don't intend to tour with them. I'm doing the rehearsals and the first week of the tour, and then I'm going to pop out the odd weekend, depending on where it is – if it's in the States, then it won't be for the weekend! But while it's in Europe I'll pop out and see it, so I'm going to do the first three days, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and then I'll leave when they go to Poland, and then a week later I'll come back for the weekend. Myself and Maggie will come back for Warsaw. And that's the way it will go. Now I've got a big dance school, and I'm not walking out on this one!
Q: And how are this troupe shaping up? It's a week and a half into rehearsals, how are they getting on?
Richard: They are just amazing. We've accomplished more than I had planned for in the first week, and we're well over halfway in all the routines, so I've got the rest of this week to get that into their heads, and then the final week will be just running the whole show backwards and forwards, and drilling and making sure they know where their places are on the stage, etc.
Q: The costumes are being shipped out tomorrow. So does that mean they won't actually get a dress rehearsal until they get to Estonia?
Richard: Yes, we'll get a full production run when we get to Estonia, and that's it. That is going to be tight, but I'm going through the time it takes to change costumes. They can virtually mime the timing it takes to change – I'll tell them, now you've got a complete change, you have to get out of pants and shirt and into another one, and we can just rehearse that. It's not like doing it with the real thing, but we've had to ship it because there's so much stuff.
Q: You said at the auditions that you wouldn't decide on leads until a couple of days into rehearsals, although you had ideas. Did those initial ideas change, or were your first instincts right?
Richard: I had an inkling, from auditions, about the people I thought would fit; but I was reluctant to make a decision until they had all started to learn the core steps of the dances. And then it just became obvious. So I like to think my first instincts were absolutely right!
Q: And do you see the show touring now, maybe, for some years?
Richard: This show should never have come off the road. It's right up there with the big names and should have run alongside them. I'm biased, I know; but it is the only show that actually has an adult story to it, and is not like a children's fairy story. This is a theatre production with Irish dance. The only other show that I knew that had that was Dancing on Dangerous Ground, which was a fabulous show, and again, that's a shame that that went down. It just brings a different element to it. But we think we've got a pretty good cross: we've got production numbers, which give a salute to the precursors like Riverdance, which was the first one. So we don't turn out backs on what they have accomplished, and still accomplish; we still give our nod of respect to that, but we try to go down a different road.
Q: And you're looking forward to opening night?
Richard: Oh, I'm so looking forward to opening night! I can't wait! And I don't think the dancers can either. That's what keeps me going every day – we start work at 10 am, we don't finish until 9.30 pm, and they are so enthusiastic about the storyline. They love the theatre of it. I said to them before we started, “This is a show where you have to be in character from the moment you step on that stage until the end, when you're just having fun on stage and reacting with the band and the audience. Up to that point you're in quite a serious story.” And they seem to have been captivated by it.
I ran the whole show today, even though we hadn't got through some of the numbers; but I described what would be happening, so they get a full idea of the plot, they're not just dancing, “Oh, I do the third number now . . .” They know what the numbers mean and how each relates to the one before and the one next to it.
Q: Which of course must make it much more interesting for the dancers as well?
Richard: Oh yes, undoubtedly.
Q: You regard the music as something really special for this show, don't you?
Richard: Yes, well, everything in the show is really inspired by the music. The music really comes first, before the dance. The music is just awesome. It was arranged and composed by a young man from Dublin, Colm O Foghlu, and we owe it to him that we've got this music to dance to, and it's inspiring. And also, the dance show has aspects of traditional Irish dance, it has show Irish dance, it has tap, it has ballet, it has modern dance moves – so there's really got to be something in here for everybody.
Q: You have quite a new, young troupe here, with a lot of dancers for whom this will be their first big touring show. Can you see stars emerging for the future?
Richard: Oh, absolutely! Some of the dancers have been in the other shows, like Lord of the Dance, Celtic Tiger, Riverdance; and there are some, as you say, who are new, and the mix is actually quite good. You've got experienced touring people here, which imports what they have learned to the young ones, and it will help. I'm just amazed at how well the whole troupe get on – maybe after a couple of months travelling on a bus they won't be quite as pally-pally, but they've started off well anyway, so here's hoping!
Author: Ann Margaret Keller
Editing: Louise Owen
