Riverdance

Popular dance and music spectacle based on Irish step dance and also featuring Spanish, Russian, folk, and tap. It began as a brief entertainment to fill the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest but was then expanded, first into an hour-long video and then into a two-hour stage show, Riverdance: The Show. Produced by Moya Doherty, directed by John McColgan, with music by Bill Whelan, design by Mary Morrow (later by Robert Ballagh), and most of the original choreography by Michael Flatley, it was premiered 9 Feb. 1995 at The Point, Dublin, with Flatley and Jean Butler. It went on to a record-breaking London run at Labatt's Apollo, Hammersmith, and a world tour. Riverdance: The New Show, featuring additional material was filmed live on 11 Nov. 1996 at Radio City Music Hall, New York.