Celtic energy will get the toes tapping

Dancers and musicians will mix traditional emotion with contemporary energies in the two-hour Rhythms of Ireland stage show on Thursday night.

Led by director and choreographer Michael Donnellan, a four-time World Irish Dance Champion, a 20-member team will switch from being rhythmic, old-style dancers to "110 miles an hour, in-your-face show stoppers", Donnellan said in a telephone interview from County Clare before the New Zealand tour.

According to a press release, the show is filled with the "sound and spirit of the Emerald Isle" and has been seen by more than 2 million people around the world. Tonight's show in Blenheim sold out days ago.

Ask Donnellan why Irish dance has such large appeal, and he suggests it's the "strong energy" it generates. "You see people swarming and dancing in the aisles. And afterwards, people are dancing in the carpark. They don't even know that's what they're doing."

Heritage also plays a part. Descendants of Irish immigrants are found in most countries around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, so it's perhaps natural for them to be drawn to the moves and music their ancestors grew up with.

Donnellan takes his troupe from town to town in a bus. A series of one-nighters can make time on the road tiring, he says. On a typical day, everyone will be up by 8am and on the road by 9am. Their destination is usually reached by midday, and after two or three hours' relaxation, rehearsals start at 3pm.

"You have to keep the fitness levels up," Donnellan says when asked about the need for dancers performing the same show night after night to rehearse.

"And the stage demands change on a nightly basis," he adds. Some stages will be too small for the whole dance team to fit on; other stages will need more dancers than are used on other nights.

To ensure that the show can run at full strength each night, not all of the dancers will be used, meaning someone who gets sick or injured can always be replaced.

His own dancing life started when he was five, and for the first few years he stayed on the competition circuit. He became a professional performer after winning his fourth world championship.

Donnellan now claims to be the only male dancer to have performed lead roles in the first three major Irish dancing shows – Lord of the Dance (150 performances), Riverdance (1000-plus) and Magic of the Dance (1500). Touring with them over a five-year period took him to 520 cities in 50 countries.

This is his first tour of New Zealand, the only previous visit being for a one-venue show in Auckland.

- The Marlborough Express