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Ceol Traidisíunta: Traditional Music: Your Mr. Joyce is a Fine Man, But Have You Seen Riverdance?

1997; Philosophy Documentation Center; Volume: 1; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/nhr.1997.a925395

1534-5815

Frank Hall,

Modernist Literature and Criticism

 Irish culture has long been associated with artfulness in the spoken, and, especially , the written word. However, in  at the Eurovision Song Contest, Irish dancing leapt onto the world stage of popular culture in the form of Riverdance. The between-acts interlude made such a hit that it was expanded into a full theatrical production which at this date continues a third successful tour of Europe, North America, and Australia. One would be hard pressed to think of another dance show of any kind that has reached such a level of popularity, splitting into multiple casts, touring around the world, and playing to packed houses. A breakaway  production, Lord of the Dance, has taken the dancing to hyperbolic theatrical heights—or depths depending on one's tastes—with smoke, fire, lights, music collapsed to a soundtrack, and female dancers removing their skirts in competition over the oily and leathered male star, the "Lord" himself. Whatever else it has done, Riverdance has indisputably put Irish dancing on the cultural map. Discussions of Irishness in the university may still focus on the recorded words of the poet, playwright, and seanchai, but just down the hall, in the public television studio, one can hear the drumming of fiberglass-coated soles. Upright bodies in synchrony spring, float, fly, batter, and stamp their tattoo with exhilarating and scary precision. Irish dancing in all its power, subtlety , and amazing technique has been exposed to the world. This is a significant and welcome change, if for no other reason than that the body­­­—the acting, moving, dancing body—has made its way into considerations of Irishness. We may well view the phenomenon of Riverdance within two nested frameworks: one being Irish dancing and the other, broader context being the moving body as expression. Riverdance may prompt, in the world of Irish Studies, a justified uncertainty. What to make of it? In the academy, we do really know what to do with dancing? While"the body"has become a postmodern pet topic and the linguistic turn in philosophy has led us to see speech as act, moving bodies in their full activity are as yet mostly beyond the pale.We can trust the study of language somehow, no matter how deconstructionist our position. But dancing poses a problem. The problem that human movement represents in the academy reflects the Frank Hall  Your Mr. Joyce is a Fine Man, But Have You Seen Riverdance? larger mythology of Western culture, where theology, philosophy, and even some strains of science contrive to separate body and mind, aligning the body with nature, the animal, the locus of temptation, the wild, the emotions, and . . . dancing—in opposition to the mind, aligned with culture, the spiritual, the soul, the civilized, the intellect, and, of course, writing. In this dualist ontology cum theology, the body must be brought under control.As Foucault has shown, the body is a matter for discipline, not creation, expression, interpretation, or understanding. Riverdance raises another uncertainty—the claim of this dancing to be "Irish." In some ways the practice of Irish dancing has been cut off from mainstream Irish culture, parochialized in competitive practice. Rather like a bastard child come to claim patrimony,its version of Irishness may be less than welcome. Far more unsettling is the fact that these regimented, disciplined, Riverdance bodies in total synchrony should form a phalanx and ripple percussive salvos to drive audiences to their feet in bursts of applause. Irish dancing is discipline made obvious in its art, and it has hit a nerve.Yet, it is not mere discipline. Every bit as involved a technique as ballet or Bharatanatyam,it is also endlessly creative, innovative, dynamic, and unpredictable. The combination of discipline and creativity , mapped onto the body halves, upper and lower, make a form that addresses the deep Western ambivalence about the body, its mindfulness, and means of control.As a phenomenon of popular culture, Riverdance builds on the issues incorporated in Irish dancing. Before addressing these issues, though we must dispense with the distraction wrought by the media cult of the individual. Much of the discussion of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance has centered on Michael Flatley, his technical skill...