Irish dancing hits TV screens throughout the UK and Ireland next Sunday 3rd September as 'Emerald Shoes', a one hour documentary gets its first airing on UTV.
'Emerald Shoes' was specially produced for the ITN network by UTV. It takes the viewer on a journey from the mongrel historical origins of dancing in rural Ireland to the Broadway brashness of Riverdance and from the fiercely competitive world of feiseanna in Ireland's working-class estates to the Irish–American ebullience of Michael Flatley's 'Lord of the Dance'.
Alan Gilsenan, Director, says "when Mary Robinson invoked the people of Ireland at the end of her presidential inauguration speech to 'come dance with me in Ireland' she could not have realised how prophetic those words would be. During the 90’s Irish dance emerged from the dim mists of Celtic twilight into the bright lights of international acclaim to become of the world's biggest theatrical money spinners."
Tracing influences from America to Ireland the programme takes us from the dance school in Chicago where Michael Flatley learned to dance to a young aspiring Flatley, Dane McKiernan from Athboy in Co. Meath, and also explores our contemporary dance heritage as we see young Connemara Sean Nos dancer, Joe McNaughton, in action.
With revealing interviews from Jean Butler, Dave Allen, B.P. Fallon, John Kelly, Paul Brady and Albert Reynolds amongst others, Emerald Shoes, narrated by Pauline McLynn, presents a highly entertaining look at the revival of Irish dancing fortunes and how international influences have put sex back into Irish dancing, after many decades of repression by religious and political traditionalists.
