TWENTY years ago Ireland was the centre of the cultural landscape around the world.

The Celtic Tiger was roaring, Eurovision wins were an annual event, the football team was ranked sixth in the world and U2 ruled the rock universe.

Now the football team struggles, Eurovision wins are long forgotten, the country has faced difficult times financially and even U2’s greatest days seem behind them – but one last legacy of the 90s remains and is going stronger than ever – Riverdance.

A modern take on traditional Irish dancing Riverdance was originally just a seven-minute performance designed for the interval in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Dublin.

The huge roar which filled The Point in Dublin as the dance came to its climax suggested there was plenty of appetite for more.

Now celebrating 20 years touring the world Riverdance has been thrilling audiences at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton all week.

Daily Echo:

So we sent digital editor Dan Kerins, a who won Irish dancing medals as a boy, to Dublin to see if he had what it takes to keep up with the professionals:

  • THE toe-tapping nature of Riverdance will always make you want to get involved yourself. Be it just clapping along or imagining yourself soaring through the air as a latter-day Michael Flatley, the sight of the dancers tearing through the show is designed to inspire.

“I could do that” is an easy thing to utter when sat on the couch or in the stalls – so it can be a bit of a shock to the system when suddenly you have to back up that statement.

The Riverdance team took me over to Dublin to see the show at The Gaiety Theatre – but before that I was expected to showcase my abilities with Emma Warren, one of the principal dancers of the show’s Liffey Company, which is touring the UK at the moment.

Luckily I’m not a complete novice. Some 20 years ago – just before Riverdance made its debut – I was an Irish dancer. In fact I was the second-best under-11 male dancer in the south of England.

Of course, the “magic” would come flooding back, wouldn’t it?

Daily Echo:

Dan is put through his paces by Emma Warren

Well, up close, the dancers have a few surprises in store. It’s mainly the speed.

The speed at which they move is terrifying.

You can’t see all the intricate moves they perform at blistering pace. It’s enough to make your joints seize up in fear.

Suddenly those 20-year-old medals won by a child didn’t seem to count for very much. Imagine.

Emma ran through with trebles, scoops, forward moves – each time getting faster and faster.

Then she turned on the music.

Now, being from an Irish family, I’m well used to the score of Riverdance. I know it intimately. Suddenly, rather than a life-long tune of the “Old Country” it was there to solely mock me, humiliate my delicate ego and break my muscles.

With effortless ease Emma soared through the air while gravity seemed determined to keep me stuck on this mortal coil.

She’d previously taught 100 kids and was about to do a matinee performance.

I’d sat around all morning before jumping around a bit.

I was a broken man. Two decades of believing the lie that “I could do it” if only I’d chosen to lay around me shattered by a dancer, over a foot shorter than me, who had not even broken sweat or even thought about having to catch her breath.

There was one saving grace, however, whilst we waited to head over to the theatre to catch the show one of the kids’ parents came over to me.

“Thanks for the class, Aoife loved it. We can’t wait to see the show later on”. She thought I one of the professional dancers.

I knew it. I’ve still got it.