It has run and run for more than 20 years — and now Riverdance could become a fixture in Dublin, bringing prosperity and peace to an area of the capital marred by violence.
The show’s backers want to see a theatre built to give the dance production a permanent space. They hope for the support of the North East Inner City Task Force, a body set up in 2016 to improve an area blighted by gangland killings.
Riverdance’s backers say that the theatre and a dance school would provide jobs and training opportunities for the community.
The proposal, made public in a freedom of information response, is for a “Riverdance academy and cultural centre” in time for the show’s 25th anniversary in 2020.
Riverdance began as an interval act in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. Since then, the live show has been seen by 25m people. In recent years it has had a summer residency in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, with about 75,000 people attending last year alone.
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This year Riverdance will run at the Gaiety from June 12 to September 9.
Over the past three years, the show’s backers have run a summer school in Trinity College, where young dancers can learn the choreography from former Riverdance performers.
Those who impress are invited to audition for a role in the production, which tours worldwide.
The idea for the Dublin academy is to create a performance space that will double as a dance academy, combining its two local operations in one location.
The taskforce, informed by a report by Kieran Mulvey on improving the area, has asked for proposals from groups in the private and public sector.
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It wants ideas of how to create jobs and improve infrastructure in an area spanning from Busaras/Connolly Station to Croke Park, bordering the docklands.
In his report, Mulvey suggested that increased opportunities in sport and the arts would be beneficial to the area and could improve “social cohesion”.
Riverdance’s present base is in Capel Street in the north inner city but it wants to create a new “destination space” to “share the story of its dance, music, props and costumes with local and international visitors”.
Riverdance said a new theatre would provide jobs and training for the community and would also become “a catalyst” for new businesses.
It has yet to decide on a location and is open to adapting a building or creating a custom-built space.
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It believes that tourists would visit the facility and notes that it recently opened a dance school in Boston and plans others in China and Los Angeles.
The uncosted proposal suggests that a location of 3,500 sq m to 4,000 sq m would be needed for the project.
“The theatre will be a black-box type space with a seating capacity of 250,” it states.
“The space includes a stage and dressing room with full lights, drapes and sound systems. The audience seating will be retractable to allow this space to become one of the rehearsal/ class rooms.”
A separate rehearsal room would have a sprung floor, mirrored walls, a sound system and a massage/physio area. There would be an exhibition area large enough to house “the Riverdance memorabilia collection plus interactive displays, a coffee shop and merchandising space”. Additional facilities would include changing rooms, a staff office, box office and a gym.
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A spokeswoman for Riverdance declined to comment further, saying the plans were at an early stage and it had held only preliminary discussions with Dublin city council.
Since it began touring in 1995, Riverdance has played in almost 500 venues across 47 countries. More than 3m copies of the official Riverdance CD and 10m DVDs have been sold. Riverdance’s creators, Moya Doherty and John McColgan, are believed to have earned more than €100m from the show.
@colincoyle