Eireann review: Irish dance with heart, soul and spectacle

★★★★

Irish dance has been an international phenomenon for three decades, with Riverdance and Lord of the Dance setting the template. Eireann arrives with a different energy. It trades polish for pulse, telling Ireland’s story with heart, soul and a living sense of occasion. Created by A Taste of Ireland and directed by Brent Pace, it delivers a full Irish culture night that feels generous and alive.

Eireann blends dance, live music, song and projection to chart Irish history. It is ambitious and, though not entirely smoothed out, it bursts with personality. An international company of sixteen dancers, many of them champions at All Ireland, Irish, European and World levels, attack tap heavy choreography with swagger and speed. The sound of the taps is unmistakably live, which matters in a genre where that detail is often debated. The one fix I longed for is arm language. Some dancers keep the traditional stillness, some raise the left hand, some let the upper body fly. When all three approaches appear at once, the feet remain in sync but the picture becomes messy and the focus drifts.

The highlights are the looser moments. Principal dancer Gavin Shevlin’s solo is a show within a show, calibrated and explosive, the kind of number you would gladly pay to see on its own. The men shade the women for bite and attack, and their hurling routine crackles with camaraderie as they tease the crowd and each other.

Three musicians drive the evening. Aaron O’Grady anchors the sound on guitar as musical director, mixing beloved standards with folk tunes that invite the cast to play. Megan McGinley on fiddle and Eamonn O’Sullivan on banjo are accomplished, and Brian O Broin’s traditional vocals are haunting and true. What would elevate the band is a touch more outward performance energy. Music in this context needs to be played and performed, and a relaxed stance can read as disengaged under theatre lights. O’Grady models the level of connection that best serves the room.

Image by Dannywithacamera

Design choices generally help more than they hinder. Rolling platforms create useful acoustic variety underfoot, and Justin Williams’s set design provides a clean canvas for shifting stage pictures. Dan Light’s video design adds abstract projections and the occasional poem, though its roaming live camera, used in the style of Jamie Lloyd’s recent work, adds little. After the post Sunset Boulevard wave of live video, this implementation feels surplus, sometimes missing key moments without offering a fresh perspective.

Lighting is the element that most needs rethinking. Danny Vavrecka’s rig is impressive, yet the stage sits in near constant brightness. Depth is lost, principals are not always singled out, and big company numbers can look flat, even a little school disco, when shadow and contrast would add drama and sculpt the bodies in motion. Selective darkness is not the enemy. It is an ally that lets rhythm and breath land.

The grumbles come from a good place. Eireann aims high. It wants scale, technical bite and a fresh viewpoint on a beloved form, and the audience response backs that intent. People clap in time, whoop, sing, and leave lighter on their feet. Eireann may not yet be flawless, but it proves that Irish dance still has the power to thrill, lifting the audience with heart, rhythm and fire.

Images by Dannywithacamera

Images by Dannywithacamera

Images by Dannywithacamera

Images by Dannywithacamera