Last week I spoke to James Keegan of ‘Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games’.
He is excited about visiting Tasmania as part of the upcoming Australian tour, in fact he calls it an ‘extra bonus’. James doesn’t know much about Tasmania except ‘where it is’ but senses an ‘exotic’ feel to a place so far away and he’s looking forward to doing some sightseeing while the troupe is performing in Tasmania for a week.
The Keegan name means ‘descendent of the fiery one’ and James, who plays the young lord of the dance, is the new good lord after the demise of the previous one in the original production. James brings his fiery footwork to this latest incarnation of The Lord of the Dance production subtitled ‘Dangerous Games’.
James explains to me the story is familiar to original ‘Lord of the Dance’ but also different. The same battle of the good lord and evil lord continues. The story is explained in the beginning of the production by the character of the dark lord himself and the production takes the form of a big dream of which the characters are part. In the dream the dark lord reminds the other characters of the destruction of the previous good lord and how they are playing dangerous games coming back with a new one.
Other similar strains from the previous Lord of the Dance are the characters of the good girl and the bad girl. The latter wears soft shoes to cover her footprints so she can move around without notice. Entwined in the story of the battle between good and evil is a love story.
Interestingly James may never have been the new good lord or even the first Lord of the Dance because early on he had his own battle of the choice between dancing or a career in football. Living as he did in Manchester football seemed to be the right direction until injury sidelined him and once he was picked for the original ‘Lord of the Dance’ he was as he says ‘a young lad on the way’ and now 12 years later he’s having’ a wonderful time’.
Traditional Irish dancing before Riverdance was a more prudent affair with no movement allowed in the arms as they were held stiffly to the dancer’s sides but with Michael Flatley’s innovation of Irish dance there was ‘an explosion of movement’ as he freed up the arm movement to allow dancers to do and explore more, making Irish dancing more exciting visually for the audience by also introducing fancy and impressive footwork. James says now, even young dancers in traditional competitions have also evolved incorporating some of Michael’s innovations in to their dancing.
James says Michael is keen to take on ideas from the senior dancers and passionate about developing new talent. Michael will often take someone from the back of the line and bring them to the front, pushing them to do their best. Nowadays the dancers are not ‘hobbyists’ who do Irish dancing as a pleasant past time but are instead trained athletes.
James says that one can sense a difference in ‘Lord of the Dance Dangerous Games’ matinees, which are heavily populated by children who are quite vocal in ‘cheering’ the hero and ‘booing’ the bad lord but in the evening production, when it is mainly couples who attend, the reaction is distinctly ‘mellow’. The differences in reaction and reacting to it says James, keeps him both literally and metaphorically on his toes!
You can see MICHAEL FLATLEY’S LORD OF THE DANCE: DANGEROUS GAMES at
Derwent Entertainment Centre, Hobart, from Thursday 10 September
Paula Xiberras First published August 11
