lord of the dance

Wow! I am not sure what to make of the show last night. It certainly was a well done production. The dancers were all top notch, the music was pretty good and the set was really cool. This show had it all; music, dance, lots of female skin, torches and of course battles ending in a clear victory for the good guys.

The storyline, if I followed it correctly, has to do with the Lord of the Dance and his battle against an Evil guy challenging him for supremecy as well as his inner moral battle against a raven haired temptress (in a red dress no less) . There is "Music" whose flute is broken by the evil challenger and which is eventually restored by the Lord. After several battles between the armies of the Lord and the Evil one, the Lord is apparently destroyed and all is dark. But wait! He comes back in a cloud of smoke! In the end he finally vanquishes the Evil guy. Then for some reason he is faced having to choose between the blonde in a white dress and the aforementioned temptress who has been cavorting with the Evil guy. It's a tough decision and he flirts with the red dress a bit before casting her aside and settling down with the white dress.

I think the whole show is a sort of, ethnic, "get in touch with your roots" kitsch thing for older people of northern European extraction, which was the overwhelming majority of the audience. For folks who normally wouldn't be found in a drum circle or other rhythmic locations there was an awful lot of drumming going on.

My mother-in-law would say, "why do you have to be such a snot?" but I thought it a bit strange that the temptress did a solo dance which appeared to be a kind of belly dance set to music which sounded like it was influenced more by Arab culture than Irish culture. Was that intentional? Like the bad guys in Lord of the Rings all coming from the South and East? A reference perhaps to the dance by the daughter of Herodias which seals the fate of John the Baptist? And I am not sure how she fit into the story or why she was in the story except that it made for some good dancing (and served as a warning to young men to beware of dark haired women who belly dance).

Of course, the best part for me was seeing how much Nora enjoyed the show. Nora sat on the edge of her seat the whole show itching to dance. She loves dancing and after being forced to sit still for the first half we went out and she danced in a quiet corner during intermission. Of course she could have danced in the aisle but she is getting a bit old and self-conscious to do that anymore. That she really had a good time and enjoyed the whole show made it all worthwhile for me. I wish she would take some more Irish dance lessons.