Skip to main content

Lord of the Dance

Tonight, I took my family to see Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance - the Celtic dance show that you always see advertised on TV with people dancing in perfect unison. (Well, I guess there's another popular show that's similar, Riverdance, but they weren't in town this weekend.)

I wasn't sure what to expect other than a lot of lightning fast tap dancing, so I was very surprised that the show incorporated much more than just synchronized feet. There was an actual story that played out, involving the Lord of the Dance and a few other key characters like his arch nemesis, Don Dorcha. It resulted in great entertainment - I loved one of the last parts of the show where they had a (excuse my lack of a better term) dance-off. Yes, you laugh now, but trust me, your jaw would have been skimming the floor watching their feet tap faster and faster! Just to give you an idea, Michael Flatley was able to achieve 35 taps per second, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Aside from the dancing, there was singing... I think both songs were Celtic ballads, or something like that... and fiddlers! In the program, they credited the performers as violinists, but they were so energetic and lively, practically bouncing all over the stage while still madly playing their instruments. By the end of one of their songs, some of the bow hair had actually frayed from the intensity of their bowing! (If you've seen a live performance of, say, Ashley MacIsaac, you've probably made similar observations.)

The amount of talent on stage was obvious, but I was actually a bit shocked by some of the costumes they wore. Considering I viewed the show as suitable for families, I figured the dancers would all be dressed appropriately - like how they look on posters of the event. So, I was not expecting the dancers to strip off their dresses in the middle of one musical number to reveal less modest clothing! In a way, I guess I was disappointed that they surrendered to societal pressures for scantily-clad women, instead of relying solely on the uniqueness of their dance talent. Ah well, that only happened in one of the dances so I can't complain too much!

All in all, it was an extremely enjoyable production (of course, the audience gave them a standing ovation) that I would definitely recommend to anyone who appreciates dance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Chinese New Year

I spent this past weekend in Toronto, sinfully stuffing my face full of Malaysian food in celebration of the new year. The image above shows a 2006 Australian Year of the Dog coin, commemorating the event quite fittingly - since the gift of money has its own part in the New Year's traditions. Now, although I may have eaten more than my share of glorious food, I also helped in the preparations of the feast! It was weird, baking with an electric mixer after having no such technology in Waterloo - I actually took a minute to stare in amazement while it was mixing the batter. Sad, I know. On Saturday night, I went to a friend's house for New Year's Eve and then later, to First Markham Place. Apparently, there was a countdown to midnight - which I'd never heard of before... and then realized why no one did it. As we counted down (in Chinese) - "sup... gou... bat... chut... lok... mmmm..." - and hit 5, a bunch of us burst out laughing. I can't really descr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Machu Picchu to Cusco

We survived. Our day started slow with breakfast and then killing time until our train departed at 1:30pm. That's what we thought would happen.  In reality, a landslide along our train route stopped all trains. Luckily, this happened before we were scheduled to depart, so we definitely dodged disaster. We ended up waiting only 2 hours to board a train out of Aguas Calientes, but this delay was only the first of many, which was not unexpected, since no one was prepared for the landslide.  Instead of our train taking an hour to reach Ollantaytambo, it took almost 2 hours, most likely because they were only able to clear one track along the route. Then, since we had to transfer to a bus in Ollantaytambo, and there was a backlog of passengers needing transportation, we got stuck in line/traffic. It took us almost an hour to get out of Ollantaytambo, with the streets completely jammed. We finally arrived in Cusco around 8:30pm, three hours later than the originally scheduled time. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reflections on Peru

Before I get too in the weeds, I think it's worth noting that after at least a decade of traveling to developed countries, Peru was bound to be a very different trip. It was our first time traveling to South America. It was the first time I was traveling with my in-laws. Also first time traveling to high altitude locations. Lots of firsts! The first thing we noticed was the transportation - we travelled on a South American airline (LATAM) for the first time, and found it to be a good experience. They automatically checked us into the flight 48 hours prior - I can only assume this is because they don't overbook their flights. On international flights, they provided blankets, pillows, and a light meal to all passengers (which is no longer part of the base fare for North American airlines). Of course, we did have that unfortunate experience on the flight back (also with LATAM) where one of us got food poisoning - so they don't get a perfect score. The great experience also doe...
Post a Comment
Read more