Riverdance: Representing Irish Traditional Music

As the archetypal example of the globalization and commodification of Ireland and Irish culture,¹ Riverdance can justly be described as one of the emblems for the now rapidly fading Celtic Tiger.² The show also was arguably one of the primary catalysts in the transformation of Irish traditional music from a primarily geographically (and ethnically) situated music into what Mark Slobin has described as an “affinity interculture.”³ Now, participation in the music is governed by choice, and the possibility of “becoming Irish music” is open to all.⁴ This connection between the show and the tradition has been utilized and emphasized in a range of contexts, from tourist promotional literature⁵ to academic course descriptions and writing.⁶ The link with tradition has also been adverted to by its composer Bill Whelan himself.⁷ In the show’s promotional material, Sam Smyth’s description of Riverdance as a “two-hour celebration of traditional music and dance” appears to conflate the two.⁸ In the same vein, Fintan O’Toole has noted that what “made Riverdance so exhilarating was the sense, not so much of invention as of recognition,” a recognition that traditional music “defined the cultural space in which the whole show operated.”⁹

This suggests that the music of Riverdance has been perceived, perhaps strategically, as being traditional—despite Bill Whelan’s explicit statement that he did not intend his music to be heard as such.¹⁰ Nicholas Carolan puts forward a contrasting view when he notes that “the music is new and different and, because of this, it will not be adopted into traditional music.”¹¹ And although Whelan acknowledges that the work is not traditional, he also has commented that he uses “traditional music as an inspiration.”¹² He has described how, when working with traditional musicians as performers, he is

inclined to let the tradition, or my sense of the tradition, lead, and then try and tuck the rest in behind it, rather than write something very smart that pulls bits out of the tradition but doesn’t seem when you listen to it to be anything more than a nod towards it.¹³

That there is a relationship between the show and the tradition is clear; but to depict this inspiration as a form of appropriation from a notionally “pure” tradition would be questionable, given the musical bricolage that typifies much contemporary traditional music. One also could posit that the music is a post-modern pastiche “cut loose from any particular time and place,”¹⁴ which reflects a “simulated version of Irish culture,”¹⁵ and which does not resemble its sources. However, to posit such a claim one needs to overlook the transformations and hybridizations that have accrued in the tradition over the course of the twentieth century.¹⁶ It is more accurate to acknowledge that Whelan, in his compositions, constructs a music that reflects the fluidity, diversity, and hybridity of the modern tradition.

In its centering of hybridity, Riverdance both constructs and reflects an image of Irish culture that is postmodern in texture, embracing the ancient and the modern, the local and the global. The show’s producer, Moya Doherty, emphasized the modern elements of this culture: “I was tired of clichéd images of Ireland,” she stated, adding that she “ wanted to show the Ireland I know and love, that it is modern and in step.”¹⁷

In fact, this representation of Irish culture was not a simple reflection, but something bordering on the prescriptive. Reflecting on Michael Flatley’s performance in the Mayo 5000 concert in the National Concert Hall in 1993—the year before Riverdance premiered—in which lay the roots for the updated dance styles of the original Riverdance Eurovision performance, Doherty remarked, “that’s the way it should be—Irish dancing with a fusion of tap and flamenco.”¹⁸ This vision of “the way it should be” recognizes that Irish identity is no longer, in Mary McCarthy’s words, “circumscribed by narrowly defined ideas about what it means to be Irish.”¹⁹ It recognizes that the cultural representation of a nation, or of other...