Spirit
Of The Disappointment
I absolutely love dancing, and Irish dancing in particular, so when
we scheduled our trip to Branson, I knew we simply had to go see
Spirit of the Dance. I
was *extremely* disappointed. As an amateur dancer, I could pick out
all the "fake" in this show. Although to an untrained eye the show
may look nice, I could not enjoy the show because of all the
"tricks" that the performers played on the audience.
Let me list a few of the things that ruined the show for me:
1. The sound that the shoes are supposed to make on the stage is
projected through the speakers. The problem, however, is that this
is a recording from a previous show, and not the actual sound that
the dancers are making live on stage. If you watch the shoes as the
dancers are performing, you'll notice that they aren't synchronized
with the noise that is coming out of the speaker. What's more,
sometimes when the dancers walk across the stage, there is noise
coming out of the speakers, and sometimes not.
2. This is not authentic Irish dancing. In true Irish dancing, there
is detailed footwork while the arms and hands are held at the sides.
These performers had their hands moving all the time. While this is
nice from a "performance" point of view, it is not authentic. If you
want authentic, go see "RiverDance" or "Lord of the Dance," not
this.
3. The lead female dancer kept yelling "Whoo-ee!" during every
single dance performance. I know this is perfectly acceptable in
country dancing, but this was supposed to be an Irish-inspired dance
show, not country. She also kept yelling, "Right! Left!" as they
were doing the Irish jigs. I had to wonder if she was trying to
remind herself what to do, since in authentic Irish dancing, you're
not supposed to talk.
4. There were several singing numbers interspersed with the dances.
This would have been fine, except that these were lip-synced.
Between the fake clogging sounds and the fake singing, I felt more
like I was attending a magic show than a dance performance: it was
all "smoke and mirrors." To their credit, I couldn't tell that a
couple of the numbers were lip-synced, but my husband could.
5. There were a variety of different dance styles performed. This
included Irish, Scottish, and Spanish. I don't have a problem with
that, but I was offended when they put on country costumes and
cowboy boots, and danced an *Irish* style to a *country* song.
That's just wrong in my book.
6. When they did the Scottish performance, they had an actor come
out in a kilt holding a bagpipe. Bagpipe music was coming through
the speaker, but the actor was obviously NOT playing the bagpipe,
but obviously faking it. Once again, smoke and mirrors.
Please save your money! If you want a wonderful Irish dancing show,
"RiverDance" is touring: you might be able to catch it locally.
-Gayle Nicoll
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