Amy-Mae Dolan can’t remember a time in her life when she didn’t want to be part of Riverdance.
“I’ve loved Irish dancing. I think it was the dream from the beginning that I would some day be part of Riverdance. I grew up watching the videotapes, then the DVDs and YouTube,” said Dolan, a native of County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, who joined Riverdance when she was 18 in 2016. “I committed my whole life to being part of it.”
Dolan is a principal dancer in Riverdance 30 – the New Generation, which will be at the Columbia County Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Feb. 14. Get tickets here.
Her love of the performance art came through her mother who also was an Irish dancer and was glued to the television when Riverdance first appeared on the scene in 1994 during the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. An estimated 300 million people watched the performance.
“A lot of people around the world especially people in Ireland, know where they were,” said Dolan. “My mom had a date. She was waiting for my dad to pick her up. He was late because he was mesmerized by the dancing.”
And her mom with ginger-colored curls wished that she was Jean Butler, the female lead, dancing on that stage.
While her mom didn’t get the chance at Riverdance, Dolan has relished every moment of her experience and is known as the girl in Riverdance back home.
Dolan started Irish dancing when she was only 22 months old and has always loved it.
“It’s truly so unique. There’s nothing like Riverdance until it surprised the world in 1994. There was no Irish dance professional show,” she said “I think it’s the combination of the rhythm of a tap dancer and the elegance and athleticism of ballet dancer. As a female dancer, I get to be so strong and powerful. I get to do the same choreography as the male dancers in my hard shoes beating the floors as hard as I can, and I also get to dance around the floor like a magical fairy.”
Audiences around the world have seen Riverdance, and Dolan said the show has “never looked better” with new costumes and new imagery on the video walls. But what makes the show, which opened its current tour on Jan. 28 in St. Petersburg, Florida, fresh and vibrant is the passion of the performers who all grew up loving Riverdance.
“This is the generation of dancers who weren’t even born when Riverdance first began,” she said. “This is the dancers who dreamed about being in Riverdance all their lives. The quality of the dancers is on another level.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
