Gaelforce Dance Review by James Stevens
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It’s
amazing where a simple stroll to work can lead you. (Note to advertisers – posters, even tatty ones, really DO work!)
I knew little about GF, except that it originated in Australia and featured James “I can tap faster than Flatley so I must be good” Devine. From what I understood, it was one of the better Riverdance/Lord of the Dance clones out there, but was it worth attending? I needed an informed opinion from people who had seen it, so I enquired in the Celtic Café. Turns out that the show has changed A LOT since the days of Devine (who has left the show) and the opinion of those who had seen it was a very positive one. In fact, some put it on an equal or greater level as Lord of the Dance. Yikes! Must be a bit good then! |
Shortly afterwards, I was approached by The Celtic Café’s Bernadette Price, and was asked if I would consider writing a special report for the Café about what goes on backstage, during rehearsals, before the show, etc, and if I would like to interview the dancers.
“Hmmmm let me check my schedule... YES! I’ll BE THERE!!!”
Another reason for wanting to do the interview was to find out about their recent St Patrick’s Day performance. It was the first time that any Irish Dance show had their show broadcast via an Internet webcast. I watched it myself, and although the “1 frame every few hours jerko-vision” quality of the pics wasn’t the best, there was a reliable audio stream broadcast simultaneously, and I instantly fell in love with the music, especially the opening male solo dance (more on that later…)
So March 31st finally came, and I set off to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall with a list of questions, several rolls of film and my hardshoes. (I had heard a rumour that the dancers might teach me a step or two!)
Accompanying me on my epic interview was local friend of the family, Jimmy Schaeffer, who was to provide the transport, photographs and audio recording equipment. So, all set then! Off we go…
We arrived at the venue about 3:15, and after a while met up with Gaelforce’s manager Frank Elwin. He took us through the stage down and into the performers/crew area. We were fitted out with our little “access all areas” badges (that made us feel important!) and went down to a small cafeteria place with tables and a small wall-mounted TV. It was deserted at that point, it was only 4:00 and the rehearsals weren’t due till about 5:30 (it was an 8pm show) so we sat down with Frank for a while, had a cup of tea (we English just don’t work without our cups of tea!) and chatted about the show.
One of my first questions was about the Gaelforce video. Frank confirmed that there WOULD be a Gaelforce video, and is due for release in early June. All the footage has already been recorded during the Belfast and UK tour. This will help enormously with the show’s publicity, because only 2 weeks ago I hardly knew anything about the show, or if it was any good because I hadn’t SEEN anything of it.
We also talked about the history of the show… originally it started off as a cabaret act before being developed into a theatrical show. Originally starring James Devine, the show told quite a complex story of 3 brothers, who all go separate ways after everyone gets killed in a storm (well, nearly everyone!) For the new, improved Gaelforce the story line has been changed, and most of the original music and choreography axed. The new score is (brilliantly) written by Colm O’ Foghlu, while the dances are choreographed by Richard Griffin (more on those 2 geniuses LATER!)
We also chatted about the recent St Patrick’s Day webcast – apparently it had been viewed by 30,000 people (give or take a few 0’s!)
At about 5:00 Frank took us on a tour backstage to show us around. First stop was the costume dept – or a double rack of costumes in the middle of the corridor. Two costume assistants (Miranda Ryan and Angela Burgess) were there and showed us a few of the costumes. (Absolutely gorgeous up close! And the costumes were nice too!)
Apparently Gaelforce has more costume changes than any other show, and some
pretty speedy ones too (the fastest is something like 30 seconds.) They explained that when the dancers come offstage
to change costumes, it basically works like a pit stop. They have to help unzip the dancers, undress
them and put the new costumes on them pronto, before they have to run back
onstage!
After seeing the costumes, we made our way onto the stage itself. Symphony Hall is a huge place, and up on stage you can see right rows and rows of seats all the way back.
The stage itself is quite small, covered with a special white dance floor, and underneath are several layers of wood and rubber to give it some “give” for when the troupe are pounding on top of it. The set is quite sparse, it has a boxed area for the band at the back of the stage, and 4 long cloth (?) banners on either side of the stage (a little like the layout of the Riverdance set) which didn’t look all that impressive, but later on when it was all lit the effect is really quite striking.
While we were looking around onstage, we watched Christine Robinson (?) rehearsing a sequence from her solo in the finale (she was playing Rhiannon – the bad girl, in the evening’s performance.) We were then introduced to Richard Griffin, the choreographer of the show (looks a mixture of John McColgan and George Lucas, but without the beard.) Not only is he the choreographer, but also the dance captain, so he was watching and tutoring Christine.
 View from backstage. Coming into frame is Cathy, who was sitting by us later on in the show! |
It was about 5:15ish, and the sound technicians were busy getting the right audio levels for the venue. After a while we had a little explore behind the stage area and Frank showed us the microphone transmitters used to amplify the taps during the show. Gaelforce are very proud of the fact that the show is 100% live. All the music is performed live (with a few bits n pieces on played back from a CD, but the main music is live) and ALL the taps are performed live. None of the dancing is canned, so all the dancers have to have a transmitter strapped to their leg, with a wire which goes down the leg into a small microphone placed near the ankle.
| These cost about £100 (or nearly $200) EACH – so they are a bit pricey to repair if they fall off and are trodden on! According to Frank, they don’t malfunction very often, although once in Rhiannon’s solo the mic wasn’t working at all, and obviously nothing could be done until she came offstage. At the evening’s performance the taps sounded fine to me, nice and crisp, with only one slight glitch towards the end (sounded like a mic had exploded in a large troupe number!). |
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We watched the crew working around on the stage for a while, and briefly met Clare Casey, who plays Aisling, the show’s heroine. What struck me was what a petite little dancer she is! More on her later.
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We also spotted Tara Ryan, the singer of Gaelforce, walking around backstage tuning up her voice in preparation for the sound tests. She chatted with us for quite a while, and we discovered that she wasn’t very well that evening, she had a throat infection but she still performed like a trouper. In fact one or two were out of the performance due to illness – one of the fiddlers was missing due to glandular fever, as well as another of the troupe who had a bad throat infection. Click on
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At about 5:30 the musicians showed up to do their tests. Colm O’ Foghlu, the composer was there with his flute ready to rock! See, not only does Colm compose the wonderful music, but he also performs onstage with the band every night, playing the whistle, bodhran, keyboards and percussion! (And VERY well he plays, too!)
The musicians warming up. The fiddler is Elzbieta Haluk
and one the whistle is Colm O Foghlu!
Also there was Paul Ryan, the accordion player, and the Polish fiddle player Elzbieta Haluk. Jim had fun trying to converse in his own version of Polish! After they had done their warm-ups and tests, Tara Ryan returned to do her sound level checks. She sung some of her songs while the sound techies adjusted the levels to get the right mix of voice and music. However Colm kept walking around her and teasing her while she was singing!
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Dancers preparing for rehearsal |
Shortly
afterwards, a few of the dancers showed up onstage and did some practising
before proper rehearsals began. The rehearsal itself was very informal, with
most of the dancers dressed in t-shirts and tracksuit bottoms. This was not a run-through of the entire show,
but merely a warm-up to some of the more complex dances in the show. They danced along to the CD and went over some
of their positions onstage. None
of this was taken too seriously, most of the dancers were just having
a great time up there! There are a wide variety of nationalities in Gaelforce. Most of them are Australian, with some Irish, British, Canadian…etc… but everyone seemed to get on really well together. There is clearly a good team spirit. |
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Below are a few pics taken from rehearsals… the quality isn’t great because there wasn’t much lighting, but you get a general idea of what goes on.
 "No I can't see your contact lense either...!" |
 Timmy Manners joining the rehearsals (middle, shirtless) |
 (Left to Right) Richard Griffin, Me, ?, Sarah, Timmy Manners |
The
rehearsals lasted for about 30 minutes, and at the end Frank told me
to go get my hardshoes and have a go onstage! Not only was I going to be dancing onstage
at one of the best Symphony Halls in the world, viewed by some of the
best dancers in the world, but I was also to receive a little bit of
tutoring from Richard Griffin, widely regarded as one of the best choreographers
in the world! There were about 5 or 6 other dancers, but I think the only lead dancer there was Timmy Manners. You’ll hear plenty about him later, but what struck me was, like Clare, how very short he is! (I suppose it’s a good thing Clare is short, never looks good to have the girl taller than the guy!) They both could only be about 5ft, if that. But don’t be deceived… what they lack in height they make up for in skill and charisma! But I’ll go into detail on Timmy & Clare’s performances later… |
"OK... which is my right foot again?"
Click on the image for a larger version
| Anyway, Richard Griffin assembled the group together and explained to me that he was going to run through some steps for the benefit of a few new members of the troupe. None of the new dancers had ever learned these steps before so it was as new to them as it was to me. Richard then went on to demonstrate a ridiculously simple-looking step. But could I do it? Noooo! The troupe picked it up straight away of course, but I needed to spend a lot of time on it. It was sort of a two-part move, and as soon as I had learned the second part, I would forget the first part! This stuff really is a lot harder than it looks! |
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After a while Richard paired me off with Sarah, a blonde girl from Belfast, who showed me the steps, while he taught the rest of the troupe. I still didn’t do much better, and have totally forgotten the step now, but it was fun!
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Me with Sarah, who is patiently and unsucessfully trying to teach me
the steps!
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Frank Elwin and Timmy
Manners
Timmy Manners, Jim Schaeffer, Sarah and Me strutting our funky stuff!
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When the other dancers left, Timmy and Richard stayed on and showed me some more stuff. They showed me new ways to do my trebles (which I almost picked up) and how to do back clicks properly. Since I have never had a lesson in my life, I had no idea how to do anything like this, and the Celtic Feet video had been about as much use as a return ticket on the Titanic! Even so, I managed to learn a few helpful things, and at least I can say I have had a lesson from the best dancer & choreographer in the world! I also got a chance to see some of Timmy’s dazzling skill close up. He showed me his backclicks, and that amazing move where he clicks his heels several times in mid air. (I don’t know what it’s called, but Colin Dunne does it a lot.) On average Timmy could click his heels together 4 times in one jump (although he told me he did do it 6 times once, but that was just a fluke!) |
So,
after an exhausting 30 minutes of practise and humiliation, Jimmy and I made
our way down to the cafeteria area to get some food, as it was past 7pm, with
less than an hour before the show. So I went down and tucked into a very unappetising
tuna sandwich (I think the fish was still alive) which I got from a self-service
sandwich rack. The cafeteria has plenty
of sandwiches and canned drinks lying around for the thirsty dancers.
Many people wonder what the dancers get up to in the hour or so before
a show. I don’t know what happened to the lead dancers
(although if you check Clare Casey’s interview, you will find out about her
personal routine) but most of the troupe go into the café to chill out before
the big performance. They sat around
the tables and chatted, some slept on the sofa while others watched TV.
While I was having lunch I sat next to Brendan Scullian from Sligo,
who used to be a troupling in LOTD Troupe 3 in Las Vegas!
I chatted with him for a while about general stuff, and found an answer
to one of the frequently asked questions… do the Gaelforce troupe play practical
jokes on each other? Every person I asked has replied ‘Yes’ to this
one! He told me that there was one
played on a guy that day, with some flowers being sent to him by a mystery
admirer! So practical jokes are very commonplace within Gaelforce. I asked the same question to Cathy Maloney,
who I interviewed in more detail. To
read a transcript of the interview, and hear her greeting to the Celtic Café,
CLICK HERE
 Dancers warming up ready for the big performance! |
 Taking a breather before the show! Notice how many bottles of water they have lying around! |
After eating my tuna sandwich (and I still don’t think I have digested it yet!) it was almost time for us to find our seats for the big performance. Every 15 minutes or so, a voice on the internal speakers would give curtain calls, telling the dancers how long it was until Act I. Most of the troupe stayed where they were until about 15 minutes before the performance, then went into the corridor to warm up and get dressed. Our cue to leave and find our seats…
CLICK
HERE TO GO TO
PART 2: THE SHOW!!!
