Gaelforce dancers leave MCA patrons on their feet

ORONO – When their feet had stopped stomping, the Gaelforce Irish Dance Sensation on Saturday night had left the near-capacity crowd at the Maine Center for the Arts on its feet.

Here and there across the packed auditorium, a child could be seen bobbing up and down or thrusting out a leg, trying to imitate the dancers.

The Gaelforce ensemble featured new interpretations of traditional Irish dance and music. Those innovations in sound, costume and dance step demonstrated the adaptability of the old Irish traditions to fresh expressions.

Gaelforce is a troupe similar to the well-known Irish dance companies Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Gaelforce, like these acts, incorporates the straight-backed, quick-stepping form of traditional dance with new presentation techniques, such as contemporary costumes and lighting effects. At the same time, the performance tells a story.

Gaelforce’s production was exceptional for the ability of its dancers to express emotions ranging from joy to hatred through the medium of the dance.

That emotion fed the story of star-crossed lovers Lorcan (Timmy Manners) and Aisling (Rosemary Watson). At the start of the show, Aisling is married to childhood sweetheart Cuan (Brendan Scullian), a kind, respectable farmer and a pillar of the small country community – who is also Lorcan’s older brother.

Lorcan, a free-spirited rover, has just returned from abroad with a new girlfriend, Rhiannon (Christine Robinson).

But in a chance encounter, Lorcan and Aisling betray their former loves and are, inevitably, found out by the community. One of the show’s most powerful performances is the dance in which Cuan and his supporters, dressed in white and khaki, encounter a defiant and unrepentant Lorcan and his supporters, clad in black.

In another striking number, Rhiannon leads members of the community in a dance that taunts and alienates a shattered Aisling. It ends tragically when Rhiannon strangles Aisling with her own red scarf, which Lorcan had retained after their forbidden encounter.

Lorcan and Cuan are reconciled when Aisling’s spirit, wearing a white dress and employing the gentle movements of ballet, urges the brothers to forgive each other.

The show concluded with a spirited finale meant to convey the joy of forgiveness and reconciliation, and including a revived Aisling.

The rapid reconciliation of the brothers and the return of Aisling weakened the believability of the storyline, but those doubts were subsumed in the finale, which showcased traditional dance sets by the entire ensemble and the tumbling of the acrobatic Lorcan.

The performance also featured interludes of traditional Irish music, including spirited reels and haunting vocals by Tara Ryan. The reels drew some of the loudest applause – and the most sustained foot-tapping – from the audience.

Gaelforce, produced and directed by Michael Durkan, has been touring throughout the world for three years. Orono is its next-to-last stop in the United States before commencing a tour in Taiwan.

Riverdance, the first company to adapt Irish traditional dancing to new forms in this fashion, opened in 1995.