Riverdance includes Salem in final American tour
Caterina Coyne’s dancing feet landed her a lead role in Riverdance, and tours across Europe and North America.
She will be featured in the group’s single performance on Sunday, May 6, at the Salem Civic Center. The stop in Salem is part of Riverdance’s final North American Tour. The United States tour will put on its final performance next month.
Millions have had their own toes tapping and hands clapping as they watched Coyne and the other 50 troop members perform the Irish version of precision tap dancing, accompanied by music and song.
She is far from putting away her dancing shoes. When interviewed by cell phone on the bus April 30 as the group made its way from Canada to Bangor, Me., Coyne talked about future plans.
“We will be doing a 10-week-stint at home in Ireland, and then I believe, a European tour going to Belgium in August. I shall be going on the very first South American tour of Riverdance.”
The 29-year-old lives in Galway, in the west of Ireland, where her parents and two sisters are.
Even though she had been doing competitive dancing for years, when she finished school, Coyne said she wasn’t certain what she wanted to do. “I was very lucky Riverdance had just come on the scene. There was nothing like it before,” she added.
The majority of people in her home country learn some form of Irish dancing when they go to school in Ireland she said. “I just loved it so much.”
And she added, “I suppose I am very lucky to be able to travel the world.”
The traveling and performance schedule is “quite grueling,” she admitted. When she has time during a several-night schedule in the same place, she and her fiancé, Mark Alfred – who is a drummer in the show – like to go out and explore the city.
They have been engaged two years, Coyne said, and hope to get married next year.
Coyne said she has visited parts of Virginia before, but this will be her first trip to Salem.
She has been with the company for six years, and appreciates both the company members who have been with Riverdance for years and the newer ones. “Maybe half of the company have been with it as long as I have,” she said. “We actually have one original cast member from when it started 15 years ago. We get new people. I think it’s a good balance to have the old and the new. It keeps things fresh.”
