Riverdance is coming home and, as with all homecomings, it is claimed that the emigrant is coming back changed. Delving beneath the press hype, little seems to have changed, however. Small tinkerings won't really alter the show which, like the other successful touring spectaculars, depends on homogenous reliability for its survival. Now that its journey to blockbuster status is complete it has to work to stay there.
Gimmicks such as Riverdance - The Homecoming attempt to renew home interest but Riverdance now seems more important to us as an ambassador abroad, selling a notion of Ireland to others, than as a vital part of our own culture. This shift has come with the rise of Riverdance from Eurovision filler to Broadway hit. Whereas we might admire its success and lay claim to its worldwide appeal as part of our wonderful evolving nation, we don't empathise with it as a cultural expression.
Many feel cosier with the original seven-minute interval act for Eurovision, which offered what seemed like a new angle on our music and dance, not just to the viewers in Euroland but to us in Ireland as well.
After its first showing on Eurovision, it was a talking point up and down the country. So why did it make such a mark? The packaging - dancers in short skirts and satin shirts - did help, Jean Butler and Michael Flately's performance and the latter's unashamed egotism on stage undoubtedly made an impact, but most of us still remember the long line on dancers hammering out their unison steps as the defining moment of Riverdance.
It was a simple device - a chorus line clattering out Irish dance - but because our response to unison displays of movement is basic and physical, it connected at a far deeper level than any cerebral evaluation of the soloists' steps. Witnessing displays of unison movement in time evokes powerful feelings, sometimes as strong as those of the participants themselves.
There is little scientific investigation of what happens to those who partake in mass movement although US writer William McNeill suggests that rhythmic input from muscles and voice may provoke echoes of the foetal condition when a major and perhaps principal external stimulus to the developing brain was the mother's heartbeat.
Mass dancing and movement has always been important and in ancient societies was always a way of bonding a community and smoothing out frictions. But the power of mass movement was only really harnessed when Maurice of Orange introduced incessant drill to the Dutch army in the 1590s and it quickly spread to other countries. Not only were soldiers more efficient in battle, but the euphoria gained from massed movement meant that it was safe to arm the masses, pay them a pittance and still secure obedience. Such is the psychological effect of mass movement on the individual.
The consequences of systematic drill in European countries were enhanced by courtly dancing in the nobility. During the Renaissance, new forms of court dances emerged in Italy and spread through a series of manuals. But it was in France, during the reign of Louis XIV, that dancing reached its classical expression. A talented dancer, Louis knew the importance of a well-drilled army and with a notorious drillmaster, made his army the most feared in Europe. Furthermore he insisted that French noblemen live in his court for long periods of time, where they took part in rituals, dances and military displays, both spectators and as participants. The effect was obedience to the king and a confirmation of uniformity of feeling. The use of muscular techniques and displays for provoking a collective response reached its height during the reign of the Nazi party in Germany and even nowadays well-drilled troops are still used to impress and unite people.
In our daily lives, we value mass movement in various ways. Line dancing rose to popularity by offering a chance to participate in unison displays. Our obsession with precise unison movement has led to Synchronised Swimming becoming an Olympic sport and many Fortune 500 companies list callisthenics as an attraction for new employees, hoping to improve co-operation through unison exercise.
Emerging in Europe in the last century, callisthenics was imported into Japan and on to the US. Valued highly in Japan, these public muscular exercises built on long-standing Buddhist reliance on rhythmic movement for spiritual purification. But European-style callisthenics soon acquired other meanings. After 1867, Japanese schools used the exercises to turn their pupils into patriotic subjects of the restored Emperor and after the second World War, factories sought to instil loyalty among their employees by beginning the day with mass exercises.
Riverdance and callisthenics may be worlds apart, but the same principle applies. Our kinaesthetic response, as participants or viewers, to unison movement is stronger than to disorganised movement. Soloists have come and gone, proving that they alone don't sustain the show and all of the Riverdance spin-offs have the dancing chorus as an essential component (and they always draw the most cheers).
If a movement form as innocuous as line dancing can become popular, then how long will it be before we'll be packing our tap shoes, meeting our friends and heading off to unison Irish dancing classes?
Riverdance - the Homecoming opens tonight at the Point
