As Five Men Enter Stage For Dance Off, Man In Middle Steals The Show

Sep 15, 2021 by apost team

The internet is great for a lot of things — keeping in touch with friends, watching cat videos and discovering talented artists from around the world. One such discovery, which has gone viral since its upload in 2017, is the Irish dance group Fusion Fighters’ performance at the World Irish Dance Championships. While Irish dance isn’t exactly popular outside of Ireland, this video has impressed viewers from around the world, which inevitably helps to raise awareness about this beautiful and under-appreciated art form.

The video begins simply enough. Two women dance out onto the championship stage, tapping their feet to the rhythm of the fiddle music that plays in the background. While experts might object to the comparison, Irish dance is quite similar to tap dancing. The two dancers who open the show barely move their upper bodies. Rather, the technique is in the fast-moving tapping footwork that is bound to mesmerize some members of the audience.

But given that this is at the Irish Dance World Championships, the Fusion Fighters don’t settle for a simple two-person tap-dancing routine. Around 30 seconds into the performance, the crowd lets out a cheer as more than a dozen dancers walk out onto stage and break into a highly coordinated routine. The dancers’ feet fly across the floor at almost imperceptible speeds, and yet the crew manages to keep time to the music.

The most impressive moment arrives in the middle of the performance when a group of five men performs solo in front of the enthusiastic crowd.

Without looking down at their feet, the quintet’s feet dart and dash every which way, making for an arresting display of coordination, rhythm and athleticism. It’s no wonder then that the Fusion Fighters’ performance has spread like wildfire across the internet. Since its original upload in 2017, the Fusion Fighters’ display of Irish dance mastery has accumulated 1.7 million views, more than 12,000 likes and hundreds of flattering comments from viewers around the world.

“I think I'm in love. With all of them. Great, great dance team,” Laura Harrison McBribe wrote in a comment that the Fusion Fighters have since liked.

“I’m in awe! I’m planning to open a performing arts studio in several years, and this is a type of dance I’d like to include after watching this,” Leah added. “These people are TALENTED!! #goals.”

Other viewers compared Fusion Fighters’ routine to the celebrated “Riverdance” show, which popularized Irish dance back in the 1980s and ‘90s.

While “Riverdance” does have traditional roots in baroque-style music, it is ultimately a more modern creation. Bill Whelan and Donal Lunny composed a three-part suite named “Timedance” for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by none other than Ireland that year. This composition was a precursor to the "Riverdance" that fans know and love today. During that 1981 performance, the Irish folk band Planxty — known for their songs “Raggle Taggle Gypsy,” “The West Coast of Claire” and “The Good Ship of Kangaroo” — performed with a four-piece horn section and a rock rhythm section.

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While the massive band played, a group of ballet dancers accompanied the music.

But it wasn't until a Eurovision performance in 1994 that "Riverdance" came to fruition in its final form. Performed as an interval act for the Eurovision Song Contest at Dublin's Point Theatre, "Riverdance" was a seven-minute performance, which was transmitted to around 300 million viewers worldwide, according to The "Riverdance" website.

"Just as my life changed with Eurovision 1994 so the cultural image of Ireland was also transformed. Irish culture, expressed in this case through dance and music, and as part of a wider, cultural awakening, took its place with confidence on the world stage," co-producer Doherty was quoted as saying on The "Riverdance" website.

The performance received a standing ovation, and Doherty and her husband were convinced that they had something special on their hands. The couple invested more than $1 million to produce a full-length version of the show.

Since then, "Riverdance" has become an international theater phenomenon. Various productions take place all over the world from New York City to Geneva.

"It is rare in my theatergoing experience to pine for something specific during the Act One — only to have it delivered with winning playfulness in Act Two. "Riverdance" does that," Kathleen Campion writes in her 2020 review of the 25th Anniversary Show at Radio City Music Hall. "The seemingly effortless flights of dancing supported by lively mythic sounds, in the first act, is gorgeous. Still, as I watched the Irish dancing, I kept seeing Bill Robinson, and Gregory Hines, and Gene Kelly."

Most recently, production companies River Productions and Aniventure have announced that they would be releasing an animated feature film based on “Riverdance.” The cast is set to include well-known actors and actresses like Lilly Singh, Pierce Brosnan, Pauline McLynn,  Brendan Gleeson, Jermaine Fowler, Aisling Bea, and John Kavanagh.

According to an interview with Celtic Life, the Fusion Fighters are directly influenced by “Riverdance.” The dance company’s founder and artistic director, Chris Naish, has even danced with Whelan’s 200-member orchestra.

 “The idea for Fusion Fighters came when I was living in New York, and working for several years on how to fuse a variety of dance forms that I was trained in – Irish dance, body percussion, tap dance,” Naish told Celtic Life. “I would often arrange experimental collaborations.”

“I just knew I couldn’t stop until I created my own company with performance opportunities and workshops where I could make this new dance form available for others to both watch and learn.”

Similar to “Riverdance,” Naish’s company also aims to add a modern twist to more traditional forms of dance, according to the Fusion Fighters’ mission statement. The crew is made up of more than 50 dancers, hundreds of international students and more than 20 musicians. While the dancers at Fusion Fighters have trained in Irish dance, many are like Naish in that they also have experience in more contemporary forms of dance and in areas like body percussion.

For fans of Fusion Fighters’ hybrid form of dance, check out their YouTube channel, which they regularly update with dance videos.

What do you think about their performance? Do you think you could do this dance? Let us know your thoughts. And don’t forget to pass this on to friends, family members and fellow dance lovers!