Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 8-10 July 2009

Magic of the Dance

MAGIC of the Dance may be full of talented dancers, but it felt as though it was having an identity crisis as the dancers whirled across the stage, first in cloaks and then with basket balls, seemingly unable to decide if they were part of High School Musical or Riverdance.

The story is also somewhat confusing: narrated by Christopher Lee, it attempts to tell the story of two lovers torn apart in famine-stricken Ireland only to come together once more when they board a ship for America in search of a new life. However, I doubt that you you would have understood this without a programme, and with the steep price of £5 my guess is that most of the audience were baffled (me included).

Most of the story took place in the first half anyway, so as I took my seat after the interval I wondered what would follow; the answer was a dance off between the American and Irish dancers. Their foot work was extraordinary, the speed of the movements mind boggling and the music eerily atmospheric.

Dermot Cullen and Collette Dunne played the romantic leads, and their dancing was able, although the chemistry between them was lacking a little. From the shores of Ireland they venture to America, and it is here that things got really strange, including an unnecessary segment of audience participation when the lead tap dancer hauled three men on stage from the front row for a contrived Rat Pack routine, and a basket ball set-piece that seemed out of context considering the production is meant to be set in 1849.

However, maybe I’m being pernickety, and the vast majority of the audience were carried away by this extraordinary tale of events.

For me I don’t know if it was the pyrotechnics or the voiceover by Christopher Lee (much loved baddie from The Lord of the Rings and many other movies) or the insanely fast moving feet of the dancers, but it was all just a bit too much on a midweek night when I could have curled up on the sofa.

I’m sure that Magic of the Dance, celebrating its tenth anniversary on this tour, will continue to wow audiences for years to come, but not always in the right way…

© Jo Gratton, 2009

Links

• Magic of the Dance