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THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS (6th April 2007)
Interview with Kevin Bourke
RIVERDANCE has become such a huge enterprise that it's sometimes easy to forget its humble beginnings. During the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Dublin on April 30, 1994, a troupe of dancers appeared, performing traditional Irish dancing but presented with a very modern twist.
It has been experienced live by over 19m people. There have been over 9,000 performances in 260 venues worldwide, throughout 32 countries and across four continents. Currently, there are three companies, all named after an Irish river, performing around the world. Boyne tours North America, the Foyle plays in Ireland and the Corrib tours the Far East. It's the latter company that starts its latest European tour in Manchester next week.
Featured soloist on this tour is Fiona Wight, who has also just released, composed, performed and produced her debut solo album, The Last Rose, financing and managing the project herself. She is, it's fair to say, an enthusiastic sort of girl, as is evident over the phone from her hotel in Pittsburgh, where she's packing for the trip to England while taking a defiantly hands-on approach to the marketing of the album.
How on earth, I wondered, does she find time for everything, when she's a full-time performer with Riverdance?
"I don't think I realised just how much I'd been working all over the world until quite recently," laughs Fiona, who has performed in 21 countries on five continents over the past 10 years.
"Riverdance continues to be popular because it's a great, entertaining show," she loyally maintains. "It's had a huge role to play in the importance that Ireland and Celtic culture has taken on throughout the world. But it also gives you, as a performer, a unique opportunity to travel and be exposed to cultures and people you wouldn't have come across in any other line of work.
"I was in Hiroshima in Japan with the troupe when Cathal Synnott, the musical director of the show, and I realised that we wanted to take something out of the tour. In empty dressing rooms or hotel rooms or backstage, we started to put together demos of the material that turned into The Last Rose.
"I want to make my songs accessible to the world of today," she says. "Weaving together the expressions, music and styles of many cultures and times I have created an emotional journey, which I hope will leave you uplifted and refreshed.
"My friends, like yours, are culturally, politically and ethnically diverse. But we all love, live and suffer the same way. As a child I thought my family was my world. As a woman, I know the world is my family."